Foreword

On May 19th, 2008, at El Salvador, the Ministers of Education adopted a decision that would be considered historical: to undertake the project “2021 Educational Goals: the education we want for the bicentennial generations”. The moment chosen to undertake this is not coincidental. The project was presented at the threshold of the decade of the celebration of the bicentennial of the independence of several Ibero-American countries, and was done so with the intent of making the most of the motivation that such historic anniversaries of such magnitude were to generate in Ibero-American societies.

Its objectives are extremely ambitious: improve quality and equality in education to face poverty and inequality, and thus, advance social inclusion. The project was to address with determination, and once and for all, unsolved challenges: illiteracy, early school desertion, child labor, low educational performance of students and low quality of public education. It was intended to do so with the will to face, at the same time, the demands of a demanding information and knowledge society: inclusion of ICT in teaching and learning, fostering innovation and creativity, development of research and scientific progress. It was necessary to walk fast and bravely to be in the first wagons of the train of the XXI century history.

From its outset we thought that the project could not be reduced, only, to the formulation of educational goals, albeit necessary and opportune, but should also aim at achieving an unavoidable social transformation that would be instrumental to the success of the educational effort. We consider that it is then, necessary, to collaborate with the countries to achieve their goals and promote a shared group action program that will help with their objectives. Fairer education demands greater social equity and greater level of culture, aspiration that, although it is that of all citizens, intends to be especially aimed at those groups that have been forgotten for so many years: ethnic minorities, indigenous people and afro descendents, women and rural area residents. This concern led to the approval of a commitment to create a solidarity fund for the educational cooperation that would complement the economic efforts of region´s poorer countries and areas to achieve the goals agreed on. Thus, all countries would feel part of a joint project and would value being part of the Ibero-American community of nations.

During the initial discussion of the document we mentioned that the project could not result, only, from the agreement of the governments and of its ministers of education. We mentioned that it was also necessary to engage civil society and take into account its proposals and aspirations and to achieve, through its active participation, a greater

commitment in strengthening education and the goals. The debate held and the publication of the opinions stated during the same support this initial desire, today more so than then.

Likewise, over these two years the project has increased its social underpinning and reliability. The debate on each one of the goals has defined and enriched its scope and its meaning. Also, the work of each country has made the achievement of the objectives and financial commitments possible. In the process, alliances with international organizations, with civil society and different sectors of the educational communities have been formed and strengthened. We are, without a doubt, facing a joint project of the Ibero-American society.

We also set out to analyze the budget requirements of the goals and did so thoroughly. The edition of the document regarding its costs made it patent that the goals were possible and the time frame in which to reach them provided an invaluable opportunity due to the simultaneous presence of favorable factors as much so in the demographic, as well as economic and social area. Its timing with the bicentennials reinforced even more the possibilities of recovering the time wasted.

The presentation of this “2021 Educational Goals” final document, that we aspire it be approved by the summit of Heads of States and Governments to be held on December, 2010, in Mar del Plata, Argentina culminates the first chapter of the project by the governments and society and initiates the last and definitive chapter: the layout of actions that in a sustained and stable manner should result in all countries achieving the goals that they themselves have set forth. The creation of an Institute for the Evaluation and Monitoring of the 2021 Educational Goals completes the institutional leg of the project. Its reports will enable us to see the progress made and show the achievements attained and will also contribute to shed light into the insufficiencies and to redouble the efforts and to reorient the process if it were necessary.

We have before us, then, a broadly accepted project that has generated great expectations among countries, governments, social groups and citizens that believe in the transforming capacity of education and that consider that we are in a decisive decade to settle historic debts contracted with millions of persons. It is, no doubt, a time of hope, but also of responsibility and commitment for an Ibero-American community built on freedom, equality and development.

Alicia Bárcena Álvaro Marchesi Enrique V. Iglesias Executive Secretary Secretary General Secretary General ECLAC OIS SEGIB

Chapter 1

The Bicentennials, an opportunity for Ibero-American education The Bicentennial of Independence Days From 2009 to 2021, the great majority of Iberoamerica countries will be celebrating the two hundred year anniversaries of independence, planned and gained at a time where there was a clear desire and yearning for freedom in many Latin-American societies; the process was arduous and it extended for a whole decade. The freedom achieved requires, necessarily, overcoming inequalities, having a good standard of living, defending nature, effectively acknowledging the rights of all persons and ensuring equitable access of material and cultural goods available.

Thus, hand in hand with the Bicentennials and at the threshold of the first celebrations, in a globalized world where the Iberoamerica region must step up to the plate, it appears, then, that it is the right time to formulate a collective project that will contribute to honor the ideals in which freedom was attained throughout Iberoamerica two hundred years ago. A project that will focus on education and will make a positive contribution to the economic and social development of the region, to the education of a generation of literate citizens, and will, therefore, result in democratic, egalitarian, open, and inclusive societies, and that will, at the same time, be able to generate collective support.

The meaning of this project The Ministers of Education who met at El Salvador during the XVIII Ibero-American Conference understood it so and, thus, was unanimously approved to:

accept the proposal: “Educational Goals 2021: the education we want for the bicentennial generations”, undertaking to make progress in the preparation of its regional objectives, goals and evaluation mechanisms, in keeping with the national plans and to initiate a structuring process to be able to offer a structural and solidarity fund.

We must recognize that it is not an easy project, since this program should set forth the objectives that Iberoamerica should achieve by 2021 taking into account the heterogeneous situation of the countries that make up the region. In spite of its difficulties, it is a necessary bet on the future since the goals should be a point of reference and an incentive for the collective solidarity effort and collective commitment of the Ibero-American countries within the framework of cultural, historical and educational integration that should be based on unity within diversity.

The celebration of the bicentennials might be the common thread that, during the next decade, will provide the drive with the desire to achieve a new generation of literate and free citizens, that transforms the way of living and the social relationships and that are open to new perceptions regarding equality and for the recognition of its diversity. The decade of the celebrations of the 200 years of independence should be a defining factor to guarantee the rights of women and of the groups for so long forgotten, especially indigenous communities and afro descendents.

The final objective is to achieve, in the next decade, education that satisfactorily answers social demands that can no longer be postponed: such as increase the number of students enrolled in schools, for longer periods of time, offer quality education that is well structured, is fair and inclusive and where the greater majority of institutions and sectors of society participate. There is, then, the conviction that education is the key strategic element to further cohesion and social inclusion.

The wish to attaining these objectives is not enough; it requires two other ingredients to complete the specific character of the project: much needed social participation and commitment of the countries with greater economic resources to contribute to the achievement of the goals in those nations with lesser [economic] possibilities.

The project “2021 Educational Goals: the education we want for the bicentennial generations” is defined by its social and participative nature. It is not possible to situate Ibero-American education at the desired level in one decade without the sensibility and the participation of the greater majority of the population, especially those that have better education and responsibility: teacher´s guild, parent´s associations, institutions, universities, companies, social organizations, etc.

There are other defining traits of the project. Not only are Ibero-American countries with greater economic resources contributing but also international organizations, cooperation agencies, companies that have assumed corporate responsibility and institutions and foundations dedicated to education and social inclusion, to support countries and regions with greater educational difficulties to achieve the goals set forth. Thus, we will be able to make progress together in building a democratic, fair and solidary societies and that will lead to the project becoming a true part of the community of ibero-American nations.

The Millennium Goals and the World Declaration of Education for All: the Prelude to the 2021 Educational Goals.

By 2015, the international community has set forth development goals that involve substantive progress in the educational arena. The United Nations´ (UN) declaration in favor of the Millennium Objectives has been a huge support to achieve them. The agreement of all the countries to eradicate poverty in the world, to achieve that all children enroll and pursue Primary Education and to advance decisively regarding gender

equality has been an important incentive for the great majority of states so that they will endeavor in achieving these objectives or feel solidarity with those with greater difficulty.

In 1990, the representatives of almost all countries of the world who met in Jomtien (Thailand) executed the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) with the purpose of fulfilling the commitments undertaken in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: everyone is entitled to receiving education. Ten years later at Dakar (2000) a Framework was agreed upon for the fulfillment of the six goals of Education for All.

The objectives of the EFA are essential/indispensable in the region, and their achievement by 2015 should be an important item in the shared efforts of all countries and of the organizations present in them. The OIS assumes them as their own and will make its best effort to achieve them.

The integration of both educational agendas

Two Agendas, Two Challenges

In a suggestive text published at the beginning of the century, Bruner (2000) underlined that Latin-American education faces two enormous challenges. On the one hand, it must improve education from the accumulated educational lag in the xx century: mainstream the early childhood care and education, primary and secondary education, reach the whole population without exclusions, specially indigenous groups and afro descendents, improve the quality of education and the academic performance of students, strengthen technical-professional education and radically improve the insufficient education received by a great part of the population: young and adult, alike.

On the other hand, we must face the challenges of the XXI century so that, hand in hand with education focused on technological changes, information systems and access to knowledge, on scientific developments and innovation and the new meanings of culture, it may achieve an evenhanded economic development that ensures reduction of poverty, inequalities and lack of social cohesion.

How to face both challenges with certain guarantees of achieving success? It does not seem possible that if there is sustained progress in education and there are similar reform models to the ones experienced in the last decades implemented, it may be make a qualitative jump that places education of the Ibero-American region among the ones capable of achieving quality education for all its students. It is necessary to try different approaches to the existing phase shifts, new actors and institutions, and renewed strategies regarding educational change that allow it to progress in the achievement of both agendas in an integrated and innovative manner.

Risks and Alternatives

Two risks haunt the makers of public policies in facing both inexcusable agendas. The first one, fulfill the pending objectives of the xx century with the same schemes that the countries used in the past. The second consider that the new challenges that proceed from the information and knowledge society may be tackled as if there were no differences in the region with more advanced countries. The direct transfer of the model of educational change of developed countries to resolve the situation in Latin-American would not be a convenient option.

Both risks require a collective reflection, an analysis of what was done o is being done by other countries and the analysis of alternatives of their own that would help lay out the right path. Searching for the solutions is not a simple task if we intend to make up for the time that has elapsed and prevail in the future, there are three strategies that we cannot lose sight of. The first, from the multilingual reality and region, revitalize its historic legacy and experiences accumulated with the purpose of developing an educational project that contributes decisively to building a more just society for all, the second involves society as a whole and not only the educational system in the processes of change, and develop, these, comprehensive and intersectoral strategies; finally, foster within the region scientific and technological progress, and use that knowledge and the tools of the society of information to obtain more quickly and efficiently the objectives proposed. This project is formulated with these direction/guidelines.

Chapter 2 Situation and Challenges in Iberoamerica Education

Latin America is made up of diverse national realities not only from the educational and cultural point of view but also with regards to its general economic and social development indicators. Although the progress made in the last two decades is important, socioeconomic inequality and poverty are common factors in the history of the region – the most unequal in the world -, which heterogeneity in levels of development and welfare are very notorious.

In spite of that and mainly because of the efforts of public policies, the region has made great progress in the improvement of the living conditions of its people. The investments in infrastructure and basic health and education services have increased significantly the welfare indicators objective of the population.

The expansion of the coverage and increase in access to education constitute two priority objectives in the commitments of educational development at national and international level, as well as the project Educational Goals 2021. The educational coverage, understood as the guarantee of an available space for each school age child, represents a basic offer that the public sector should be able to commit to having.

However, this offer does not ensure access thereof, understood as the effective use of such space within the school system. In this sense, the fact that there is an educational offer extended does not guarantee the exercise of the right to education. Difficulties such as distance in rural areas, poverty, malnutrition and child labor, among others, may prevent actual access of all children to the educational system. Therefore, the efforts cannot end only with coverage expansion but, also, with the creation of conditions that guarantee access of all children and youth to quality, inclusive, multicultural education that fosters diversity and democracy. The diverse progress and challenges of the region in this area are reviewed in the next pages.

Progress in access, pursuing and culminating education

Primary education Access to primary education usually is examined based on the rates of enrollment at that level. In Latin America, access to this educational instance is homogenously high, save for exceptions, reaching near mainstream levels in several countries that compose it. The differences in access to education between boys and girls and between socioeconomic brackets are not significant at this level.

It must be taken into account that access to educational system does not necessarily ensure adequate progression/pursuance and, mainly, culmination of this level of education. On the one hand, there are problems in primary school – children lag behind - in the gross rate of enrollment, and on the other hand, there are problems with retention, that is to say, a high rate of school desertion. The lag or poor academic performance (atraso educativo) generates important costs for the educational systems of the region. Only at primary education level 9.000 million dollars would be spent in caring for children who based on their age should be attending secondary school. (ECLAC/OIS, 2010). Already among children aged 9 to 11 there is a significant percentage who are behind one or two years regarding grade that would correspond to them by age, even in taking in consideration that several countries have, for the first grades, automatic promotion systems (see Chart 2.1.) Additionally, in 2006 – 2007 almost 3 million children were not attending school. Secondary Education Lower secondary education´s objective is to complete the formation of basic skills, offer greater educational opportunities and create favorable conditions for continuous education. In this sense, lower secondary school is a continuation of primary school level and endeavors to lay the foundation for lifelong education.[1]

Unlike what happens with primary education, timely access and procession to and within lower secondary education is far less, and the situation among the countries tends to be heterogeneous: the net enrollment rate at this level reaches 75% (vs. 96% for primary education), and, starts at 41% (in Guatemala) to 97% (in Brazil and Spain)[2]

[1] That is the reason why this period is called “basic education” since it includes primary education and lower secondary education.

[2] It should be taken into account that the net rates at lower secondary education might be affected by lag and desertion during primary school as well as lag between youth that should be receiving higher secondary education.

Chart 2.1. IBEROAMERICA (17 countries) Grade lagging at school of children aged 9 to 11[3] and completion of Primary Education (ISCED[4]) among young people aged 15 to 19 of the total population, according to sex and income quintile. 2007 - 2008.

Source: ECLAC based on the Information System on Educational Trends in Latin America (SITEAL as per its Spanish acronym), statistical summary I, national totals (October 2008) and the special tabulations of the household surveys of the countries.

On the other hand, educational lag is cumulative and socioeconomic inequalities, per geographic area or per ethnic origin, increases. The educational background of the household is a determining factor in educational lag between the ages of 12 and 14: a child who is from a low education family is ten times likely to lag behind than one who comes from a home with good educational background. Also, there are, important differences in accordance per area of residence (see Chart 2.3).

[3] Children with two or more years of lag in the grade that they attend as opposed to the grade corresponding to their age.

[4] International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)

Chart 2.2. IBEROAMERICA (21 countries) Net Enrollment Rate in Lower Secondary Education. 2008 (in percentage)

Source: ECLAC, based on the official numbers of the countries and IUS data. *without Spain and Portugal

Chart 2.3. IBEROAMERICA (18 countries) Education Lag/school backwardness among students aged 12 and 14[5] [6], according to educational climate at home and geographical areas. 2006 – 2007 (in percentage)

Source: ECLAC based on the Information System on Educational Trends in Latin America (SITEAL as per its Spanish acronym), statistical summary I, national totals (October 2008) and the special tabulations of the household surveys of the countries.

[5] Simple average of 16 countries.

[6] Children with two or more years of lag in the grade that they attend as opposed to the grade corresponding to their age.

LOW MEDIUMUM

HIGH Urban areas Rural areas MEDIUMUM

National total

GEOGRAPHICAL AREA EDUCATIONAL CLIMATE AT HOME

To the heterogeneity between countries there is also a more marked heterogeneity within the countries that result in marked differences between urban and rural areas, between poor and not poor, or from different socioeconomic backgrounds, between indigenous and not indigenous peoples, among other discriminatory factors.

Post Secondary Education /Tertiary Education Due to the acquisition of insufficient competences necessary to face the difficulties of more advanced studies – expression of the unequal quality of education that they have faced in the course of primary and secondary education – and of other factors such as the need to obtain income to have access to minimum levels of welfare, very few are able to finish technical professional education or university education: among young people aged 25 to 29, only 8,3% have been able to culminate at least 5 years of post secondary education (typical duration of an university career with a stratification according to strong per capita income quintiles, since per every 27 young persons from high income levels (quintile 5), only one of low income is able to complete five years of post secondary studies (see Table 2.4.)

Chart 2.4 IBEROAMERICA (18 countries) Completion of at least 5 years of University Education among young people aged 25 to 29, according to per capita income quintile and sex. 2008 (in percentage)

Source: ECLAC based on the special tabulations of the household surveys of the countries.

In this regard, it is necessary to develop specific programs that address strengthening technical-professional education, to define models of the qualification system and vocational/professional training that, in accordance to the specifications of each labor

Men Women

Quintil 1 Quintil 2 Quintil 3 Quintil 4 Quintil 5

market, may be used as guiding framework and of convergence of reform policies developed in Ibero-American countries.

Pending issues and the great educational challenges of the XXI century

Absolute and Functional Illiteracy

Illiteracy is one of the most serious manifestations of lacking educational coverage and real problems with access to school: the greatest expression of educational vulnerability that accentuates the inequality problem, the more difficult the access to knowledge is the more difficult it is to achieve wellbeing. That is the reason why, there is a close relationship between poorer population and greater indices of illiteracy and insufficient education (UNICEF, 2000).

Ibero-American educational opportunities, in terms of literary programs for adults, have improved in the last years, albeit in some cases deficiently, especially in more deprived area (poorer).The disparities among countries are remarkable. In spite of the fact that the regional average of absolute illiteracy is less than 9% of the population aged 15 and up, in several countries it exceeds 15% (Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua), while in other it affects less than 5% of the population (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Spain, Venezuela and Uruguay), as can be seen in Chart 2.5. We must also point out that, unlike the educational indicators previously analyzed – that showed in general an improvement in the position with regards to gender education access, retention, progression and completion – illiteracy affects mainly women. This disparity is specially marked in Bolivia (78,5% of illiterate people are women), Spain (67,6%), Guatemala and Mexico (62,8%) and Paraguay (60,1%).

Functional illiteracy, on the other hand, is quite generalized, and for 18 countries of the region it affects almost 29% of people aged 15 and up. Also, the differences per socioeconomic levels are remarkable, and go from almost 47% in lesser income quintiles to around 13% in higher income ones.

Chart 2.5.

Iberoamerica (21 countries) Illiteracy rate in persons aged 15 and up, per country and household per capital income quintiles, 2007. (in percentage)

Source: ECLAC, based on IUS data and the special tabulations of the household surveys of the countries *without Spain and Portugal

Early Education and Preschool Education Preschool education has acquired relevance as public policy recently in the region: in November 2007 the ministers of Education of the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS) executed the Hemispheric Commitment to Early Childhood Education, acknowledging that this is in the integral development process of children from birth to 8 years of age, and agreed to implement legal frameworks and financing mechanisms to ensure sustainable implementation of early childhood policies; increase quality comprehensive education coverage, establishing comprehensive care and education policies and processes and criteria for focusing on attending to poor, vulnerable and excluded segments of society tailored to their particular needs, characteristics, and contexts, among others.

Also, the ministers of Education of the member states of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OIS) approved during a conference held in Lisbon in 2009 a comprehensive care in early childhood project that provided a preview of one of the Shared Actions´ Programme that constitutes the basic core of the 2021 Educational Goals project (see chapter 7).

The extension of preschool education and the policies and programs that facilitate the access of the most vulnerable sectors contribute to the delivery of a significant educational basis, defined as a key factor in the fight against desertion and grade

Persons that cannot read or write

repetition, describe previously. The starting point in the region is quite heterogeneous, with access levels (measured from the enrollment in preschool of children aged 3 to 6) almost universal in Cuba, Spain and Mexico, and levels in the vicinity of 30% in Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Dominican Republic (see Table 2.6.). On the other hand, the enrollment in early education (children aged 0 to 3) would be far less, due to the lack of offer coverage of institutional opportunities as well as cultural factors, among which the relative low participation of women in the labor market compared to other regions, which is also associated, somewhat, to the greater apprehension of the mothers that would leave their infants under the care of a stranger.

Chart 2.6. Ibero-American (21 countries) Net enrollment rate for Pre-primary level (age 3 to 6 years old). Estimate of the enrollment for early education (0 to 3 years old) *. 2008.

Source: ECLAC, based on IUS data and the special tabulations of the household surveys of the countries (attendance

rates) *Estimate in accordance to exponential models based on the household surveys of the countries with available information. Age groups vary depending on the official school cycles of the countries

Quality, the challenge Probably, the most difficult challenge that the region has is to attain that all efforts that the countries make to increase their educational level of their population is reflected in achievements of quality learning.

Standardized measurements that have been undertaken in international projects have shown that the learning deficit of Ibero-American students in basic competences, such as mathematics and reading comprehension, is alarming. Most recent information on academic results of countries from the region is offered by two tools: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2006 undertaken by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Second Comparative and

Net

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rollm

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PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION EARLY EDUCATION

Explanatory Regional Study (SERCE), prepared by UNESCO´s Latin American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE), also in 2006 (see Table 2.1.)

In spite of the age difference of the students assessed, both measurements are quite coherent, and the participating Latin-American countries in PISA are the ones that showed the best results compared to the rest of Latin-American countries (save Cuba and Costa Rica). Both measurements show a high percentage of the student population obtained poor performance in basic learning competences. Also, there is a significant difference between the PISA results from Latin-American countries and the OECD average results of developed countries (approximately 75 points and less so if Spain and Portugal are excluded).

Infrastructure and educational resources The bare minimum to obtain optimal results in the process of education is that the educational system can rely on infrastructure and resources necessary to operate adequately. In fact, the space where the students spend during official school hours can have a negative or positive influence in the, based on the conditions of [maintenance of] the school. Also, the educational resources are also very important for the development of the teaching and learning process.

Chart 2.1.

2006 PISA Test and 2006 SERCE Test Result

Source: ECLAC, based on the information regarding the 2006 PiSA Test (www.pisa.oecd.org) and the 2006 SERCE Test: OECD, UNESCO, and LLECE (2008a).

Observation: the highlighted scores are those significantly greater than the regional average, which are 500.

Educational resources, such as the volume of the bibliographical material and computers in schools, are especially significant for children from low socioeconomic brackets, whose homes lack or are not availed of minimum resources. The investigation in education has shown that educational resources at home (desk, books, computer), are one of the factors have great bearing in the achievements in learning of the students. Therefore, schools should be a place where household deficiencies that prevent concrete improvement of learning for all children are compensated.

In this venue, information and communication technologies (ICT) have been ranking high as an important educational tool indispensable to be incorporated in the educational system. ICTs, and specially computer access and internet connection, are innovative resources that have shown to be necessary, also, as a tool to live and interact in a post modern and globalized world. Currently, social inclusion is linked, increasingly, with access to knowledge, due to the participation in networks and due to the use of ICT (Hopenhayn, 2002). Formal education system is key to mainstream this access since it allows expanding connectivity and use of electronic networks.

The so called digital breach, linked to the difference in access and use of ICT within and among countries, is markedly manifested among the different socioeconomic groups as well as among generations. The average access to technology in households from economic, social and cultural status from developed countries belonging to OECD,

including Spain and Portugal, is more even that the ones in Latin America, where the differences are marked (see Chart 2.7)

Chart 2.7.

Iberoamerica (selected countries) Household of students aged 15 that have personal computers, per economic, social and cultural status. 2006

Source: ECLAC, based on the 2006 PISA data, OECD

Teachers´ Education If one thinks about quality of education of a country, it is unavoidable to do so compare to the quality of the teaching staff. This results in that strengthening the teacher´s profession is a priority in the great majority of educational reforms. As shown by the comparative assessment, the countries that are able to achieve better results in international evaluations take special care of its teaching staff: selecting candidates to pursue teaching as a career within the upper third of secondary school graduates; offering initial competitive salaries so as to make the professional attractive, and provide with multiple opportunities to further their professional career (Ravela, 2009).

OEC

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MEDIUM

HIGH

A teacher who has had initial quality education and opportunities to have access to continuous training programs may contribute to improving the performance results of children. However, in most countries of the region, the overwhelming demand for pedagogic transformation required to teachers in the last decades has not been duly accompanied with the proper change processes of the institutions that educate them, nor the working conditions and the necessary professional development.

Public policies in favor of the teaching staff needs to take into account the unfavorable contexts and conditions so as to remove possible obstacles that limit the success of certain initiatives oriented specifically to their professional development. From this perspective, the proposals to improve the situation of the teaching staff must be based on the contextual and integral approach, where all factors are taken into account that contribute to facilitate the job of the teachers.

Chapter 3 Meaning and scope of the educational goals: Where do we want to go together? Governance and social participation

New Strategies for the educational reform In spite of the progress made with regards to access to education, there persists a deficient quality of education and deepening inequalities. The fact is that after several decades of educational reforms they had had little effect in improving knowledge and competencies among students, in reducing disparities, in strengthening public schools and achieving training for the teaching staff in accordance to the new social and cultural demands. It appears, then, that the educational reforms implemented to date have not achieved their programmatic objectives, and therefore, new strategies capable of obtaining better achieving their objectives are necessary.

For the last 25 years some proposals for change have had general acceptance in most countries of the region. The backdrop of most of them has been linked with the objectives of quality in terms of efficient management of economical resources, with the decentralization of the educational policies and the standardization of evaluation of academic achievements of the students. However, as mentioned by Marchesi (2010), the progress obtained because of the effort made in management, in decentralization and standardization has not been enough to solve pending problems because of the limitations of such strategies: the importance of the social context was forgotten, the diversification of the educational offer that could answer to the differences of the schools and the students and reduce the depth, interrelation, scope and creativity in the curriculum by putting emphasis in certain competencies that needed to be evaluated was neglected.

Society and Education In hindsight, it is clear that, the direction of the educational changes and the process of change itself in education cannot by itself resolve social problems, but it requires from them, in parallel, to produce certain transformation in other areas of society. It is not enough that the education bet is on democratic values, justice, and equitable participation but, at the same time, there is no political, economic and social initiatives that advance in the same direction. An equitable education is not possible in a society with so much inequality as the Ibero-American. And it is not possible to make progress towards a more just society without equitable education, where minimum quality requirements are guaranteed for all students.

Emphasis, therefore, is made in global policies, capable of presenting convergent strategies in the economic, social and educational area, with the objective of making progress and building just, cohesive and democratic societies. That is the only way progress will be made possible fast and surely towards the objectives proposed, and the educational efforts will not be frustrated by the immutability of the social conditions.

Need for new allies Permanence of students in school for twelve years, objective desired for the next decade, cannot be achieved in some cases if not approached at the same time with the active collaboration of the families, their education and motivation, as well as health care and nutritional concerns by the teachers. The same happens with the education in the diversity that requires committed collaboration of families, association that represent different groups of students and permanent activities in the area of community action. Or in the civic and democratic education, that cannot be presented only from the action of schools but also with the support and collaboration of the families, mass media communicating and social and cultural institutions.

These considerations lead to the development of systematic or comprehensive plans where it, not only, incorporated representative institutions of the municipal, health, leisure or town and country planning areas, but also new actors that contributed to strengthen the operation of the educational system. The cities, social organizations, volunteers, companies or university students could be some of the new alliances that should be built.

Educating in diversity

Cultural and linguistic diversity of the region The multicultural and multilingual reality of Ibero-American countries requires coherence and consistency in answering the diversity of situations in which education is developed and to obtain the educational answers from that same perspective. Silvia Schmelkes(2009), in addressing the necessary breaks for equity and interculturality, has highlighted that in order to achieve educational equity with indigenous peoples there is a requirement of a break that pursues the attainment of three objectives:

Achieve educational purposes, especially the ones referred to the basic and higher skills and the civil coexistence that each country defines for all students of basic education.

Balanced bilingualism that guarantees the mastering of the two languages: indigenous and dominant, regardless of which one of them is the mother tongue.

Pride of their own identity, so that indigenous peoples come into contact with other cultures from a strong sense of recognition and pride of what is their own.

However, in the drafting of the laws and regulatory norms, as well as from the public policy management standpoint, it seems that the educational processes are only catering

to populations and students that have a common economic, social, cultural and linguistic background. This strongly conditions the capacity of the educational systems to respond specifically to the demands of society.

The necessary flexibility for education in diversity should not only be applied to the territories where ethnic minorities live, indigenous people or afro descendents, but also should be the pivotal point of the educational process. The students with special educational needs, ethnic minorities, women with greater obligations and less rights, immigrants, all of them are present in most schools and all of them require that their history, culture, tongue and aspirations be taken into account.

Betting on inclusive education The objective to attain inclusive schools has been one of the main aspirations of all those who defend equity in education. Schools for all, without exclusion, where students learn to coexist and learn in spite of their differences in terms of social background, culture and different capacities and interests, from the most able to those who have some sort of disability, are an ideal model that motivates many committed persons with educational change. In this sense, the integration of the students with special educational needs in a school is a valuable option with marked consequences. The coexistence of all children, capable and less capable, contributes to an enriching experience and fosters understanding and solidarity.

This deep sense of education in inclusive school should not forget that the mere presence of students with special educational needs not ensures the success of the task at hand. There are risks that the coexistence, friendship, empathy and solidarity desired among students with living conditions that are so different may not be attained satisfactorily. There needs to be permanent attention and care on the part of the teachers and the families, the educational and social institutions so that the pedagogic experiences in and outside school are positive.

Comprehensive care during early childhood

From the Declaration of the Rights of the Child to its application for all Early childhood is the most important evolutive phase of human beings since, during the first years of life, the madurative and neurological basis of development are set. Scientific research of the last decades has revealed the importance of early cognitive stimulation in children for intellectual development. The brain development of the first years affects mental and physical health as well as behavior for the rest of his life. What, how and how much they learn thereafter in school depends mostly on the social, emotional and cognitive skills that were developed during the first years of life.

Therefore, it is of the outmost importance that basic nutritional and health conditions of small children are guaranteed as well as the provision of varied simulation, support of the families that care for the needs, development and education of their children and the

progressive incorporation of children in organized educational situations that contribute to the maturation and learning. In this sense, it is important to highlight that the programs for the care of early childhood must be part of the social and educational environment. It is very difficult for the educational area to attain its goals if, at the same time, there is no specific care within the social and family context where the child is growing up. This thought requires the coordination of the different institutions responsible for the health, welfare and education of adults, early childhood education and the support of the family to develop coordinated initiatives to be implemented within a territorial scope and in a specific population.

We must point out that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, current since 1990 and executed by most countries in the world and by all Ibero-American countries, became a reference material in terms of policy, plans and programs concerning population aged 18 and less.

Guarantee access to education The achievement of twelve years of education for all students is possibly the most ambitious objective that this project is proposing. It has been affirmed in several occasions that receiving eleven and twelve years of formal education is the best option to have clear possibilities of escaping poverty or of avoiding falling into it because of access to precarious, unstable or poorly paid jobs or to avail of sufficient competencies to find new jobs throughout life.

It is necessary to insist, once more, in the consideration that providing enough offer does not ensure access, as understood by the effective use of the place in school. Difficulties such as distance in rural areas, poverty, malnutrition and child labor, among others, are specific obstacles. Therefore, the efforts cannot lay only in the extension of the coverage itself but also on the creation of conditions that guarantee the access of the children and the young to the educational system.

From these indispensable conditions is necessary to achieve that the students attend schools regularly, which requires at the same time commitment and follow up of the families and that the curriculum offered is accessible, interesting and significant. Schools are needed in many places, proper dignified schools in others and goods schools spark the interest of students to learn everywhere.

Comprehensive bet on quality teaching The meaning of quality education cannot be understood if the main objectives are not taken into account. And therefore, nothing better than to take a look at the proposals contained in the Delors Report (1996):

So as to fulfill its missions education must be based on four learning skills, that throughout a persons life will be for each person, in a sense, pillars of knowledge: felt that education throughout life is based upon four pillars: learning to know, that is to say, acquire the instruments to understanding, learning to do, to influence its own environment, learning to live together to participate and cooperate with others in all human activities, and, lastly, learning to be, a fundamental process that brings together the other three elements. Of course, these four manners of knowledge converge into one, since in them there are many points of contact, coincidence and interchangeability.

A relevant and significant curriculum The relevance , pertinence and significance of the educational curriculum are central factors in the definition of quality education, relevance answers the questions what for and what, that is to say it concentrates on the objectives and contents of education, respectively, in this manner, a curriculum that answers these questions should consider the objectives that society places upon education, and will be relevant as long as it promotes learning the competencies necessary to fully participate in the differences areas of life, to face the demands and challenges of society, to have access a to decent jobs and develop a project of life in relation to the others (UNESCO/OREALC, 2008a).

Pertinence, on the other hand, is understood as the answer to cultural diversity of the students, not only recognizing the differences but also aligning and adapting the school subjects to their life contexts.

A significant curriculum is that which connects with the interest of the students and their lifestyles, that adapts to their learning rhythm, that establishes permanently the relationship between what was learned and the experiences that the students have outside school that allows the participation of the students and team work that incorporates regular use of information technologies, that include relevant and balanced forms the development of artistic and sports education, and that cares that all students are well within the educational institution and that they can learn.

Citizenship and values Education for an active, democratic, multicultural, solidary and responsible citizenship at the beginning of the xxi century, is one of the most important tasks of society and the educational systems. In a society that is so unequal, especially in Latin America, the education of free literate and solidary citizens is one of the main strategies that may lead, due to a collective commitment of the different sectors of society, to overcoming poverty, exclusion and inequality.

It is not simply that citizen education attains its goals if at the same time there is no collective commitment on the part of political and social institutions with the recognition of all persons as citizens with full rights. Thus, policies that foster social inclusion, equality, participation and freedom and the individual and social rights are the ones that contribute best to the educational action to reach its goals.

Schools play an important role in the development of moral autonomy of its students, in the caring of their emotions and the opening of possibilities for the exercise of moral behavior. Social integration of all students, strengthening the bonds of friendship, respect

of the difference and of weaker students, care of emotional literacy, participation of teachers in school activities, learning through cooperation among equals, support of the most skilled to those with learning difficulties, defense of peace, environment and equality of persons, whatever their culture, origin or gender, as well as certain activities of community work are necessary elements to build school communities based on responsibility and solidary behavior.

Art Education, Culture and citizenship New social demands and a renewed vision on the function of school education has manifested the importance of students acquiring necessary competencies that will enable them to learn, lean to coexist and learn to be. In this context, arises with strength the role of art education for the comprehensive education of people and building citizenship. The development of creative skills, abstract thought, self esteem, disposition to learn or the ability for team work, finds in art education a strong ally.

The presence of art in education, through art education and through education for the arts, contributes to the comprehensive development of children and young persons. In facing the challenges that art education poses that is sensitive to cultural diversity, is not enough, as Andre Giraldez (2009) states, to include in curriculums with dominance of occidental art cannons some isolated activities where different art cultures are mentioned. It is necessary to make a in depth revision that takes into account the need to help students sense art as a fundamental element of cultural and social life, to find a place for art in their lives and understand and value artistic contributions made by artists and art, itself, in different cultures and societies.

Creating a reader`s community Progress in information and communications technologies cannot forget the important role that reading texts has in learning. Reading facilitates knowing other worlds and other realities, finding new senses and interpretations of life, culture, society and the world. Narration stimulates a beautiful manner of thought that helps build meanings, not only of the social sciences but also of the scientific logic ones as well. Reading allows exploration, discovery, organization of knowledge and relating different mental schemes that act in many occasion far from one another. Doubtless, learning is enriched through reading.

Reading allows knowing feeling and emotions of others, relationships built, force of passions, risks of life and search for solutions of existing conflicts. Reading also enables access to other cultures that offer ways to relate, rules and values that, because they are different, obligate to align own`s personal rules and values. Reading contributes, as well, to face the reader with ethical and moral decisitions, because in placing him before different ways of thought, of living and of acting, he is required to evaluates the events and activate, and in some occasion, modify their own set of value judgments.

From this perspective, school libraries are like engines to a community of reader. Coordinating its operation with other libraries, advise different types of readers, organize activities, inform about what deserves to be read, care the most attractive collections for the families, facilitate meetings and contact with writers, make theater presentations or

foster borrowing books, are some other initiatives that contribute to achieve the desired goals.

New technologies and education There is no doubt that the introduction of information technologies in the educational system is having extraordinary impact. The potential of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in school is not reduced only to the digital education of the population. It also hopes that these may introduce transversally in the process of teaching-learning, facilitating the obtention of modern and improved competencies improving the academic achievements of the students.

Nevertheless, so that the incorporation of ICTs may take advantage of the maximum educational potential, policies to foster them cannot address exclusively the provision of technological equipment to students or to schools. The same has to be accompanied and complemented – from the updating and maintenance process of the equipment – to the training of teachers, provision of materials and digitalized educational contents, and above all, must be incorporated in the curricular educational project and not as an independent subject.

The main task, therefore, is to achieve that the students improve their learning process with the use of information technology. But this involves configuring a new scenario, for the relations between teachers, students and contents of teaching as well as for the evaluation of the whole process of teaching and learning. If changing the way it is taught, it is more so modifying the usual system used to evaluate. Therefore, the formation of new teachers so that they may have the necessary competencies that will allow them to incorporate ICTs, naturally, in their pedagogic practice, constitutes a fundamental variable to guarantee the success of the endeavor.

Full time school days in Primary School The progress in current pedagogic models and the education needs of the modern world make it to be more important to have with teaching that requires devoting more hours to it which has been traditionally been part time in school systems of the region. Years ago international research has shown that more school hours create conditions in the school to improve the pedagogic process for students, teachers and directors. The 2021 Educational Goals project proposes the extension of the school day for primary school education as a manner of supporting the improvement of quality of learning.

The objective of extending school hours does not involve an increase in absolute school time but also it leads to a transformation in the organization of the school system that better adapts to the curricular changes and teaching models of today.

Improve basic competencies of all students Improve the quality of teaching requires, or better said includes, attaining that all students obtain better results in learning. As mentioned before, international evaluations where countries of the region have participated has highlighted that their learning are significantly lower than developed countries, and that this lag are significantly inferior to the advanced countries and that this result affects all levels of students, specially a greater percentage, near 50% that cannot reach the level that is considered necessary to incorporate actively to the labor market.

No doubt social and educational inequalities suffered by countries of the region are the origin of the poor academic performance detected. Also factors relation to educational management and resources destined to the education, with organization and operation of the school, with the training of teachers, with the conditions where they must perform and the attitude of the students themselves, condition, at the same time, by the social, family, cultural and educational environment where they live, along with these factors, we must point out also the advantages of a significant curriculum addressed towards the acquisition of basic competencies, as well as the incorporation of evaluation systems of the progress of learning of the students that are able to relate the contents learned with the competencies required.

Reinforce and make sense of the evaluation The exists across the board consensus in all the countries of the region on the strategic importance of the evaluation of the improvement of the quality of teaching. It cannot be another way, since the evaluation enables to know, even partially, the operation of the educational system as a whole and of each unit that composes it: schools, teachers, students. The results of the evaluations provide, therefore, indispensable information to reinforce and redirect educational policies or educational actions.

One of the difficulties that should be paid special attention is the great diversity of educational situations in each country, as well as the existing difference within each one of them. This outlook not only complicates the international evaluations, but also the national systems of evaluation themselves. The process of decentralization and the wager on the autonomy of schools obligates to adapt the evaluation systems to the new educational reality. The same happens, or should happen, if it takes into account cultural and linguistic diversity present in Latin America, much so within the student body itself.

Independently of the peculiarities of each educational system, evaluate its quality implies addressing its ambits: programs, schools, teachers, students. The evaluation process should be directors towards them, knowing that they are capable of combining the quantitative and qualitative approach in the evaluation process, that the function to improve education should prevail against any other alternative.

Technical Professional Education (TPE)

Gap between education and employment One of the main contradictions of Latin American society is that between education and employment: current young generation is the one that has had more years of schooling and reached better educational levels, but is the one that has more difficulties, not only in finding employment but also finding employment in accordance to the education obtained. However, these differences are also based on gender, social level, home of origin and habitat. Therefore, young women who come from poor homes those live in rural areas and with low levels of education can be considered as the specific group with less opportunities for accessing jobs.

However more and better level of education, or, of basic competencies, is not enough to have access to a job. Growing technological development and the high degree of specialization reached by certain productive sectors of the Latin American region determines that in the labor market acquire an increasing importance the improvement of professional competencies specific of young people in the employment field, which in the end means the need to establish a more close bond between education and technical-professional education.

We must recognize that these initiatives constitute one of the faces of the problem. The other, of no less importance, is the one that affects the operation of the work market; scares transparency in the offer of work positions, lag between offer and demand of qualified job opportunities, and insatisfaction with the hiring system.

TPE should situate itself, therefore, in close link to education secondary, playing a role that corresponds in education of young people, being also the bridge to answer the demands of productive development of a country and tries to reach social inclusion, as well as the need to update workers and adults.

Literacy and education throughout life

Lifelong learning Learn to learn is one of the basic skills that all students should attain upon completion of compulsory education, since only them would they have acquired the inclination to continue learning and managing what was learned throughout their lives. It is verily put into doubt that education and learning does not end in school years, but that the person should keep on learning throughout their lives. It is not possible any other way to insert in the work force actively and creatively in the face of innovation and new knowledge.

From this point of view, which was mentioned in the beginning of the technical professional education, must be understood the objective of achieving complete literacy in Latin America and situate its citizens in the perspective of permanent learning. Although

important, it is not only attaining people to read and write but also that all of them reach their own competencies of basic education and participate in programs that promote labor insertion. It progress in this way towards the notion contemplated in the Conference of Education for All of satisfying the basic needs of learning, closely associated with the acquisition of competencies that people need to live and work with dignity, participate in society and continue learning.

Written culture and diversity A theoretical approximation made by Emilia Ferreiro (1999) continues being a necessary reference. From the concept of “written culture”, Ferreiro points out that that incorporating the term “diversity” is essential. There is no way of escaping, she says, a diversity issue when studying literacy: diversity of systems of writing invented by humanity; diversity of purposes and social uses; diversity of languages in contact; diversity in the relations in texts, in the historic cultural definition of the reader, the author and authority. Be literate, se says in another part of the text, is part of the lettered culture, being able to circulate in diverse of texts that characterize the lettered culture. This implies being a critical reader and having criteria to be able to select texts. Therefore, reading is not equivalent to decoding, being literate does not equate to knowing the alphabet.

From this perspective, Luis Oscar Londoño and Marta Soler (2009) concluded that the concept of written culture goes beyond the context of reading and writing (the codes) and the functional or text comprehension context. They make reference to reading and writing in a social context and in the electronic and information context. To master reading and writing it is necessary that they become culture, in a way of being in the world, in a way of living and coexisting. This, reading and writing, conceptualized as a permanent process of learning, are not relegated to certain school grades. Because reading and writing are learn throughout a lifetime and requires education that guarantees that all persons may exercise their citizens rights.

Full literacy has been one of the concerns and expectations that have had greatest social integration and reiterated reflection of interests by the different public powers. There have been many and varied educational programs and political initiative that have preoccupied in Latin America to achieve full literacy, even when not all of them have been successful.

Professional development of teachers

Being a teacher: social, cultural and labor context In chapter 2 we mentioned the importance that the teachers in the process are able to improve the quality of education in Latin America. However, if teachers are they key to achieve quality education, it is imperative to also admit that improved education actions

from teachers cannot be achieved, without at the same time achieving better level of quality in the operation of schools. Professional development of teachers and improvement of schools are intimately related to one another. Teachers work in a specific social and cultural context and under specific educational and labor conditions. Public policies in favor of teachers need to take into account these contexts and conditions to remove possible obstacles that limit the success of certain initiatives, specifically designed for the professional development of teachers.

From that perspective, the proposal to improve the situation of the teachers should be based on contextual and comprehensive approaches, where all factor are taken into account that contribute to facilitate the job of teachers. In the at same sense and complementarily thereto, the greater majority of initiatives that are presented to improve education cannot lose sight of the implications for the strengthening of the teachers profession.

The teachers at the center of the educational change We must point out that the countries in the region have different situations and experiences. Access to the teacher`s profession is not homogenous, having different modalities and level of demands. In most countries initial education is responsibility of the university, but in others it is the responsibility of higher institutes or regular schools. On the other hand, people without pedagogic education have access to the teaching profession, specially in secondary schools, indigenous communities and deprived areas. In these regions schools have difficulties in attracting and retaining certified teachers and provide quality education to the students.

There is, however, a common factor in all situations: social change. The transformations of society and the educational repercussions, affirms Jose Manuel Esteve (2009), become a central element to orient the work of teachers, since from the new challenges and demands as should be designed the type of formation that will receive and the way for their professional development. The education of the teachers in the necessary competencies to teach the new generations, may be the most important dimension for the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning of students.

Now then, in the analysis of the new challenges that the new teachers must face – new competencies and ways of teaching, changes in the training and access to the profession, professional development, incentives and evaluation – cannot be forgotten the pending agenda of the xx century: salaries, time of teaching, dedication and labor conditions. The forgetting of these last may assume that we are not meeting the mark in the strategies and lines of action that are presented to face the future challenges.

Extend the Ibero-American space of knowledge and strengthening of scientific research. It is necessary to recognize that research and science in Latin America will need sustained effort through the next decades to have a relevant role in the whole of the regions of the world.

It is not strange that for that the XV and XVI summits Ibero-American if heads of states and governments agreement in a program to promote the Ibero-American Space of Knowledge. Advance in the consolidation of a shared space of higher education and scientific research means promoting a privileged tool to advance specific processes of integration in the regional and among the countries, to benefit the generation and distribution of relevant knowledge, as well as guarantee the training professional with a Ibero-American vision and belonging.

To advance in the consolidation of the -American Space of Knowledge, the Ibero-American Conference of Education, met at Sonsonate (El Salvador) in may 2008, approved the creation of the Centro de Altos Estudios Universitarios (CAEU) of the OIS. Its general objective is, precisely, contribute to the building of said space, so as to strengthen and improve the quality of the process of modernization of education, science and culture, through the constitution and furtherance of training networks and inter- institutional I research.

The development of the -American Space of Knowledge is the goal that has marked the countries of the region to reinforce the reaction of postgraduate university networks, mobility of students and researchers and the collaboration of Ibero-American researchers that work outside the region. Its main axis is the increase of the number of researchers in each one of the countries and their mobility, as well as the sustained increase of research and development investment (see Chart 3.º.) its objective is the development of an interactive space and collaboration in the areas of higher education and research, as vectors of scientific and technological knowledge, that must be articulated with innovation and with development.

Chart 3.1.

IBEROAMERICA (21 countries) Expense in research and development as percentage of GDP. Las year available (in percentage per GDP)

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) based on the official statistics of the UNESCO Statistics Institute (USI)

Chapter 4 Education goals, indicators and levels of success.

FIRST GENERAL GOAL Strengthen and broaden participation of civil society in educational actions. SPECIFIC GOAL 1. Increase participation of different social sectors and coordination of educational projects: families, universities and public and private organizations, especially those linked to health services and promotion of economic, social and cultural development.

INDICATOR 1. Number of projects where different social sectors participate; applied comprehensively.

- Level of achievement: Each year, the number of coordinated innovative projects developed in a territory (municipality, department, regional), where various social sectors participate, increases.

SECOND GENERAL GOAL Achieve educational equality and overcome all forms of discrimination in education.

SPECIFIC GOAL 2. Guarantee access and permanence of all children in the educational system by means of the implementation of support and development programs for the families to promote the permanence of their children in school.

INDICATOR 2. Percentage of families with socioeconomic difficulties that receive support to guarantee the habitual attendance of their children to schools. - Level of achievement: By 2015, at least 30% of the families that are live below

the poverty line receive some sort of economic support that guarantees the integral development of the children and their attendance to schools; 100% receive it by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 3. Provide special support to ethnic minorities, indigenous people and afro descendents, to female students and students that live in urban marginal areas and rural areas, to achieve equality in education.

INDICATOR 3. Percentage of literate children, within these groups, enrolled in initial, primary and secondary education. - Level of achievement: Percentage of children from ethnic minorities,

indigenous people and afro descendents, residing in marginal urban areas and rural areas, and female, is at least equal to the median of the literate student body enrolled in initial, primary and secondary education.

INDICATOR 4. Percentage of students from ethnic minorities, indigenous people and afro descendents that pursue studies in technical–professional education (ETP) and the university. - Level of achievement: Annual 2% increase of students from ethnic minorities,

indigenous people and afro descendents that pursue studies in (ETP) and a 1% increase of those that pursue university studies.

SPECIFIC GOAL 4. Guarantee quality, bilingual, intercultural education to students belonging to ethnic minorities and indigenous people.

INDICATOR 5. Percentage of students belonging to ethnic minorities and indigenous people that have books and educational materials in their mother tongue available. - Level of achievement: Schools and students receive materials and books in

their mother tongue and teachers use them habitually.

INDICATOR 6. Percentage of bilingual teachers working in bilingual classrooms with students that speak their own indigenous language. - Level of achievement: all teachers that work in bilingual classrooms have

proper command of the indigenous language of their students.

SPECIFIC GOALS 5. Support the educational inclusion of students that need special education by means of adjustments and specific help.

INDICATOR 7. Percentage of students with special education needs enrolled in regular schools. - Level of achievement: By 2015, between 30% and 60% of the students with

special education needs are enrolled in regular school and between 50% and 80% are so by 2021.

THIRD GENERAL GOAL

Increase initial education offer and optimize its educational value. SPECIFIC GOAL 6.Increase initial education offer for children aged 0 to 6.

INDICATOR 8. Percentage of children aged 0 and 6 that are enrolled in educational programs. - Level of achievement: By 2015 between 50% and 100% of children between

the age of 3 and 6 receive early education attention and 100% do so by 2021. By 2015, between 10% and 30% of children aged 0 to 3 participate in educational activities and between 20% and 50% do so by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 7. Optimize the educational value of this stage and guarantee training of enough teachers responsible thereof.

INDICATOR 9. Percentage of teachers that have specific degree to teach early education.

- Level of achievement: By 2015, between 30% and 70% of teachers that work with children aged 0 to 6 possess the relevant degree and 60% to 100% do so by 2021.

FOURTH GENERAL GOAL

Mainstream primary and basic secondary education and increase access to higher secondary education.

SPECIFIC GOAL 8. Ensure schooling/enrollment/attendance of all children in primary and basic secondary education under satisfactory conditions.

INDICATOR 10. Percentage of schooling/enrollment/attendance and of completion of primary education.

- Level of achievement: By 2015, 100% of students are enrolled in primary education, and between 80% and 100% complete it at the corresponding age.

INDICATOR 11. Percentage of school enrollment and of completion of basic secondary education.

- Level of achievement: By 2015, between 60% and 95% of students are enrolled in basic secondary education, and between 70% and 100% are so by 2021. Between 40% and 80% of the students complete basic secondary education by 2015 and between 60% and 90% complete it by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 9. Increase the number of young people that complete higher secondary education.

INDICATOR 12. Percentage of students that complete higher secondary education. - Level of achievement: The rate of completion of higher secondary education is

between 40% and 70% by 2015 and between 60% and 90% by 2021.

FIFTH GENERAL GOAL

Improvement of the quality of education and school programs.

SPECIFIC GOAL 10. Improvement of the level of achievement of basic competencies and student´s knowledge of fundamentals.

INDICATOR 13. Percentage of students with satisfactory levels of achievement in basic competencies in national and international tests.

- Level of achievement: Decrease of, at least, 20% of the number of students between the two lowest levels of performance in LLECE 5th grade, PISA, TIMMS or PIRLS tests in the different countries that participate. Increase, in the same proportion, of the number of students in the two higher levels of said tests.

SPECIFIC GOAL 11. Optimize, empower, and promote education in values for an active democratic citizenship in curriculum as well in the organization and management of schools.

INDICATOR 14. Update of education in values and for the citizens in curriculum at different educational stages. - Level of achievement: By 2015 the curriculum of the different educational

stages has been restructured and the education in values and for the citizens in the different areas and subjects has been reinforced.

SPECIFIC GOAL 12. Offer a curriculum that incorporates reading and the use of computers in the process of teaching and learning, in which artistic and physical education play a relevant role, and stimulates the interest in science, art and sports in the students.

INDICATOR 15. Weekly reading time in different stages. - Level of achievement: At least three hours have been devoted to compulsory

reading in primary education and two hours in basic secondary education.

INDICATOR 16. Frequency in the use of computers in school by the students for learning purposes. - Level of achievement: By 2021, teachers and students use the computer

regularly in the process of teaching and learning.

INDICATOR 17. Weekly time devoted to art and physical education in schools. - Level of achievement: At least three hours are devoted to art and physical

education in primary education and two hours in basic secondary education.

INDICATOR 18. Percentage of students that choose scientific or technical training post-compulsory education. - Level of achievement. By 2015 there is a 10% increase in students that choose

to pursue scientific and technical studies, and a 20% by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 13. Improvement of the library contents and computers in schools.

INDICATOR 19. Percentage of schools with libraries. - Level of achievement: By 2015, at least 40% of schools have school libraries

available, and 100% of them do so by 2021.

INDICATOR 20. Student per computer ratio. - Level of achievement: By 2015, the ratio of computer per student is between

1/8 and 1/40; and 1/2 and 1/10 by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 14. Increase the number of primary schools operating full time.

INDICATOR 21. Percentage of publicly-funded primary schools operating full time. - Level of achievement: By 2015, at least 10% of publicly-funded primary

schools are operating full time; and between 20% and 50% are doing so by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 15. Extend comprehensive evaluation of schools.

INDICATOR 22. Percentage of schools that participate in evaluation programs. - Level of achievement: By 2015, at least 10% and 50% of schools participate in

evaluation programs; and between 40% and 80% do so by 2021.

SIXTH GENERAL GOAL

Foster the connection between education and employment through technical-professional education (ETP). SPECIFIC GOAL 16. Improve and adapt technical-professional education curriculum in accordance to the labor market.

INDICATOR 23. Percentage of technical–professional careers which competency – based curricula take into account the requirements of the labor market. - Level of achievement: By 2015, between 20% and 70% of technical-

professional training centers offer careers based on the competencies required by the labor market, and between 50% and 100% do so by 2021.

INDICATOR 24. Percentage of students that participate in internship training programs. - Level success: By 2015, between 30% and 70% of the students of technical-

professional education participated in internship training programs in companies or labor institutions, and between 70% and 100% do so 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 17. Increase and improve the levels of work insertion in the formal sector for young graduates of technical-professional education.

INDICATOR 25. Percentage of young ETP graduates who have access to employment in positions relevant to their competencies. - Level of achievement: By 2015, between 30% and 60% of ETP graduates

accomplish work insertion in accordance to the education obtained and between 50% and 75% do so by 2021.

SEVENTH GENERAL GOAL

Offer lifelong educational opportunities for all. SPECIFIC GOAL 18. Guarantee access to education to young people and adults with greater disadvantages and needs.

INDICATOR 26. Percentage of literate population. - Level of achievement: Before 2015, 95% is the rate of literacy in the region.

INDICATOR 27. Percentage of young people and adults recently educated that continue studying. - Level of achievement: Between 30% and 70% of recently educated youth and

adults continue pursuing studies equivalent to basic education.

SPECIFIC GOAL 19. Increase the participation of young people and adults in continuous, in-classroom and distance training programs.

INDICATOR 28. Percentage of young people and adults that participate in continuous, in-classroom and distance learning courses. - Level of achievement: By 2015, 10% of young people and adults participated

in some education course and 20% do so by 2021 (in the four weeks prior to the date of the relevant survey)

EIGTH GENERAL GOAL

Strengthen the teaching profession. SPECIFIC GOAL 20. Improve initial training of primary and secondary school teachers.

INDICATOR 29. Percentage of officially certified degrees of initial education for school teachers. - Level of achievement: By 2015, at least 20% and 50% of the initial education

degrees are certified and between 50% and 100% are so by 2021.

INDICATOR 30. Percentage of primary school teachers with specialized training in higher education, as per the INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF EDUCATION (ISCED, level 3), and percentage of secondary school teachers with university and pedagogic degree. - Level of achievement: At least, 40% to 80% of each one of the groups of

teachers is certified as such by 2015; and 70% to 100% are so by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 21. Promote continuous training and development of the teacher’s professional career.

INDICATOR 31. Percentage of schools and teachers that participate in programs for continuous training and educational innovation. - Level of achievement: By 2015, at least 20% of the schools and teachers

participate in continuous training programs and of educative innovation, and at least 35% do so by 2021.

NINTH GENERAL GOAL

Broaden the Ibero-American knowledge forum and strengthen scientific investigation.

SPECIFIC GOAL 22. Support the creation of university networks offering postgraduate opportunities, mobility of students and researchers and collaboration of Latin American researchers working outside the region.

INDICATOR 32. Percentage of mobility scholarships for students and researchers among Ibero-American countries. - Level of achievement: By 2015, achieve 8.000 mobility scholarships for

students and researchers of the whole region; and 20.000 by 2021.

SPECIFIC GOAL 23. Strengthen scientific and technological investigation and innovation in the region.

INDICATOR 33. Percentage of full time researchers. - Level of achievement: By 2015, the number of full time researchers is

between 0,5% and 3.5% of the economically active population and by 2021 it is 0,7% to 3,8%, respectively.

- INDICATOR 34. Percentage of investment in R&D in the region with respect to the PIB. - Level of achievement: By 2015, the percentage of the PIB invested in R&D is

between 0,3% and 1,4% of the PIB (median of the region: 0,93%) and by 2021 between 0,4% and 1,6% (median of the region: 1,05%).

TENTH GENERAL GOAL

More investment better invested. SPECIFIC GOAL 24. Increase the economic effort of each country to achieve the 2021 Education Goals.

INDICATOR 35. In 2010, draft a financing plan for each country to achieve the Goals and update it periodically.

- Level of achievement: A plan is approved in each country; it is evaluated and adapted every three years.

SPECIFIC GOAL 25. Increase international solidarity with countries with marked difficulties.

INDICATOR 36. Coordinate a Solidarity Fund for Educational Cohesion in 2011, with an action plan up to 2021.

- Level of achievement: The Solidarity Fund is developed and coordinated, which contributes between 20% and 40% of what countries and regions with greater educational setbacks commit for the fulfillment of the goals

ELEVENTH GENERAL GOAL

Evaluate the educational systems and the implementation of project “2021 EDUCATIONAL GOALS” SPECIFIC GOAL 26. Strengthen the evaluation systems in each one of the countries.

INDICATOR 37. Strengthen evaluation institutions, planning systems and statistic units of the countries.

- Level of achievement: By 2015, all countries have consolidated their evaluation institutions and planning and statistical units.

SPECIFIC GOAL 27. Ensure follow up and evaluation of the project 2021 Educational Goals.

INDICATOR 38. Create a Follow up and Evaluation Institute of the Educational Goals and Executive Council, where the representatives of the evaluation systems of the countries participate.

- Level of achievement: The Follow up and Evaluation Institute of the Educational Goals files, every two years, per country, a general report regarding the progress in the fulfillment of the goals.

SPECIFIC GOALS 28. Strengthen the participation of the different social sectors in the development and in the supervision of the project “2021 Educational Goals”.

INDICATOR 39. Create an Advisory Council for “2021 Educational Goals”. - Level of achievement: The Council drafts and files, at least, one report

every two years on the progress of the project 2021 Educational Goals.

Chapter 5 Costs of fulfilling the educational goals and its budget financing

The simultaneous effort required to advance towards the fulfillment of the set of goals involves several important resources, more so when the educational situation of some countries show marked breaches and insufficiencies that prevent the effective exercise of the right of education. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the costs projections to progressively fulfill the goals in 2021 and the structure of same, as well as the capacities and commitments necessary to finance them.

The ministries and secretaries of Education of the countries of the region have done, or are doing, specific studies regarding what educational goals and which level of achievement in each one of them the country can commit to, based on the resources involved in these advances, their own public financing capacity and diverse extra-budgetary finance alternatives. The exercise is not an easy one, since it requires taking into consideration the existence or design of diverse educational programs and current cost structures, technical and financial ability of expansion of same and the establishment of evaluation mechanisms, among other relevant elements while at the same time committing to a medium and long term educational project.

To establish the regional level aggregated costs, it was opted to take the costs expressed in local currency to USA dollars in 2005, currency and year which within currently international measurements and growth comparisons, fiscal resources and monetary flows. The monetary transformations were made using implicit deflators of the gross domestic product (GDP) of each country, which enabled us to take the values to local prices in 2005 and then apply the average exchange rate to dollars in 2005. The basic educational and budgetary situation, the levels of goals, the growth and cost projections, are the ones provided by the countries that have conducted their own studies. In the rest of the cases we used the growth projections estimated by ECLAC and the educational information provided by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the data provided by the ministries of Education collected by OIS for the 2009 preliminary costs study and the projections of goals and costs contained in the same, with the monetary transformations already mentioned.

The cost of the 2021 Educational Goals In general terms, to effectuate a cost study the initial comparison is of the costs involved to reach the levels of coverage and current access to it. In those goals that were possible the comparison compared to the available budget or indicator of prior achievement, such as the enrollment rate in pre-primary, primary and secondary education or research and

development (R&D), the costs are presented as differential with respect to the resources projected for 2010 and its evolution, maintaining current levels of enrollment and school retention of resources for scientific research[1][1].

Several of the quantified goals could not be contrasted with a budget previously available, where in some cases they were not part of the usual programs of the ministries or secretaries of Education, or because of lack of information. In those cases the cost represented the added value for each that has progressively instrumented some programs, such as literacy, basic education for recently lettered persons, ongoing education for teachers and development of resources center for learning, among others.

In the presentation of the costs proposed 2021 Educational Goals there is a distinction between programs typically associated to the public budget for education and those that are not subject of exclusive administration of the ministries or secretaries of Education. Among the latter is the transfer to vulnerable students, associated in the region to the programs of fight against poverty, many times administered by the planning or social development secretaries or similar. In the same sense it differentiated the R&D, since in occasions is under the ministers or secretaries of Government (or Presidency) or services of Government with some degree of autonomy regarding the sectoral ministries.

Costs of 2021 Educational Costs associated with the public budget in education. The costs to advance and fulfill the educational commitments (regular programs, literacy and basic edcuation for adults, educational quality and infrastructure), associated with the project 2021 Educational Goals, increases gradually. In this manner, for the Ibero-American group, the cost to initiate with the commitment in 2011 does not exceed 8 thousand million dollars, which only represents 0.18% of the regional GDP foreseen for said year. In this year, the increase of the educational investment is the most significant, since later increases amount to an average of little more than 0.12% of the GDP.

If Brazil and Mexico are excluded, that add up to more than 40% of the regional economy, the costs to advance towards the goals in the rest of the countries would be in the vicinity of 4.500 million dollars (0.17% of the GDP). In 2015, the cost would reach little over 12.800 million dollars and in 2021 it would reach 43.600 million dollars (35 thousand million Euros). On average, the additional effort required in each year would be f 0.12% of the GDP.

In the chart 5.1. the Iberian Peninsula is excluded (Spain and Portugal), due to the importance of the Spanish economy as well as the fact that those two countries have generalized access to all educational levels, which implies less needs to advance, and therefore, lesser costs related thereto. In this manner, if we consider that only Latin-American economies, excluding the main ones (Brazil and Mexico), the costs decrease slowly to about 4.100 million dollars in the beginning of the project, to 11.700 million in

[1][1] National teams of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico calculated the costs as the difference between the 2010 costs and the progression of achievements in the next years. The rest of the countries present a variation of basic costs related to the demographic transition process. In countries where school aged population increases in the next years, these costs will increase; whereas on the contrary, in those countries where school age population decreases so do comparison costs.

2015 and to 30 thousand million in 2021 (24.200 million Euros). In this last year, the resources involved in the educational programs of the project add to 1.78% of the GDP, even expressed as an increase respect to the year before that only involves 0.21% of the same (3.600milllion dollars).

Ultimately, the amount of resources required to achieve the goals associated to the educational budget is significant, but not impossible to financier, in judging it as a proportion of the gross domestic product. Doubtless, it is a breach of resources that not all countries will be able to close, but the effort to increase the educational budget and improve tax collection, as well as its supplemental with other sources of internal and external funding, indicates that the commitment with the 2021 Educational Goals may bear fruit expected in the term established. Structure of the Cost of the 2021 Educational Goals The weight that the achievement of each goals has depends greatly on the current educational situation of the countries, of the structure of current unitary costs in each educational level, the level so poverty and its demographic transitions process, as mentioned before. Chart 5.1. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Total annual costs of the goals that depend on the public budget in education*. 2011 – 2021 (In 2005 million dollars, million Euros and GDP percentage)

Source: ECLAC based on the national cost studies and preliminary cost studies of ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

For said reason, the temporary cost structure of the goals vary from one country to the other, although there are general trends, or at least common, in a majority of the

In million USD

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countries of the region. To facilitate and organize the cost analysis of the diverse goals, in this section we opted for gathering them in regular educational programs (initial, pre-primary, primary, lower secondary and higher secondary education), literacy programs (literacy and basic education for the recently lettered) and equipment programs and strengthening quality (libraries, computer science laboratories or centers that offer learning resources, training of new teachers, ongoing education of teachers). Following we describe the costs of these larger programs and the inner structure of same. Regular educational programs (initial, pre-primary, primary, lower secondary and higher secondary education) The goals that have greatest relevance in the region are, without a doubt, the ones related to this type of programs, part of which are compulsory (normally primary and lower secondary education). At the beginning of the project, theses would concentrate a bit less than 80% of additional resources required in the framework of the field of action of the ministries of secretaries of Education, to go on and involve gradually 91% of same in 2015 and decrease to 85% in 2021. This is due to the initial prioritization that the countries are giving to the advance in this type of goals, the nature of these advances allows the progressive reduction of resources associated to the repletion, which facilitates reorienting the efforts towards goals that are less urgent. (see chart 5.1A and 5.1.B) On average, the resources involved in achieving the associated goals are the regular programs that are about 88% for the whole period and in 2021 would reach 61.500 million dollars. The amount of resources is far less when it includes Brazil and Mexico (34.200 million dollars in 2021), with an average weight of less than 79% with respect to the total costs of the goals that depend of the educational budget. Literacy programs and further education Literacy programs (and re-literacy) are in general low cost, and therefore, the resources required for this additional effort are not significant in comparison. In this manner, although in 2011 and nearby years the region would have about 480million dollars annually, this cost decreases significantly thanks to that an important number of countries would achieve virtual eradication of illiteracy during the term of the project (see Chart 5.2.A) This naturally, can be achieved as long as it is accompanied with decisive measures of mainstreaming of primary education (so as to avoid new cohorts of illiterate population). With said set of measures, the region could reduce in 5 perceptual points illiteracy of the population aged 15 and up, going from 7.7% in 2010 to 2.8% in 2021.

In the face of the need to give recently lettered opportunities to acquire basic skills that are give in primary education, and thus avoid them becoming illiterate again because of lack of use thereof, the requirement of latter basic education for the same implies an additional cost that is greatly incremented. This is due to, in part, to the costs of primary education are greater and that said education requires a longer period of time than a literacy program.

Chart 5.1.Iberoamerica (21 countries)

Structure of costs of the goals associated to the regular education programs and increase of resources that are required each year to reach the goals . 2011 – 2021

A. Percentage structure of cost of goals (in percentage)

B. Increase of resources required to reach the goals (In 2005 million dollars and in gdp )

Source: ECLAC based on the national cost studies and preliminary cost studies of ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

Chart 5.2. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Cost to reach the goal of literacy and in the basic education of recently lettered, annual increase of costs and trajectory of both goals. 2011 – 2021 (in 2005 million dollars and in GDP percentage)

INITIAL EDUCATION (0 – 3 YEARS OLD) LOWE SECONDARY EDUCATION

PRIMARY EDUCATION

PRIMARY EDUCATION (3 – 5 YEARS OLD) HIGHER SECONDARY EDUCATION

IN 2

00

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ILLI

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A. Cost of the literacy programs and further basic education

B. Annual increase of both programs and weight of same in regional GDP

Source: ECLAC based on the national cost studies and preliminary cost studies of ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

Thus, while in the beginning of the project the additional investment required for basic education of recently lettered adults is low (34 million dollars addition in 2011), it increase some to 330 million in 2015 and reaches 7.700 million in 2021 (see chart 5.2.A). this is due to a strong inflection into the growth rhythm of said program from 2016, to culminate in a coverage of almost one fifth of the total adults recently lettered. With all this, the significance respect to the GDP of both programs is small, reaching at its highest (year 2021) only 0,13% of the same at regional level (chart 5.2.B). if it excludes the regional

POST – LITERACY (BASIC EDUCATION)

LITERACY (AND RE-LITERACY)

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INCREASE OF COST WITH RESPECT TO YEAR BEFORE

PERCENTAGE OF REGIONAL GDP

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aggregate of Brazil, Mexico and the Iberian Peninsula, the cost in 2021 would decrease considerably (1.500 million dollars).

Quality Education The diverse cost studies consigned here, as well as the regional preliminary study, in general did not include the funding of the resources which means increasing the number of full time primary schools, which supposes the increase of hours in classroom of the teachers, eventually the increase in hiring the same (in terms of number of weekly hours or number of teachers), or the construction of new schools in those countries or regions where double shift is used (morning and afternoon shifts). This could increase significantly the costs of the associated programs to the improvement of educational quality that is presented herein.

Chart 5.3. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Total cost of programs that have a bearing in the educational quality and annual increase of resources. (in million dollars)

Source: ECLAC based on the national cost studies and preliminary cost studies of ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

As per the hiring of new teachers, continual education of actual teachers and necessary equipment to reinforce the quality of education (libraries, computer science laboratories, centers of learning resources), the greater investment would concentrate on the first years of the project. In this way, while in 2011 involves around 13,8% of the total resources necessary to advance in the goals linked strictly to the educational policies, in 2021 its participation would be progressively reduced, to reach only 3.7%.

In spite of the above, for that period said expense would almost triple in absolute terms: from 1.100 million dollars in 2011 to around 2.700 million dollars in 2021. If Brazil and Mexico are excluded, by 2021 this expense would decrease to at least 1.600 million dollar. In this framework the comparative analysis of costs, the ones on improvement of

TOTAL ANNUAL COST

IN 2

00

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ILLI

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ANNUAL COST INCREASE

educational quality in the Iberian Peninsula are relatively lower, and therefore if four countries are excluded (Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Portugal) this line of program of the project 2021 Educational Goals. Would decrease to 1.320 million dollars to complete execution (see chart 5.3.) Costs of the goals of support of vulnerable groups and research and development Some of the goals proposed in the 2021 Educational Goals object go beyond the field of action of the ministries and secretaries of Education. No doubt, they are goals that will strengthen the educational process and the inclusion of all citizens in the same, as well as to take advantage of the potential that education provides in the economic and social development of the region. However, some the spheres of action fall onto other public organizations or need at least a strong articulation of same, which means also that the allocation of resources does not fall onto educational policy with administration mechanisms and reallocation of same that escape the administration sect oral. Such is the case of the diverse aid programs to vulnerable groups generally part of the policies of fight against poverty and social inclusion, and research and development, in occasion in change of organization that are not under the ministries or secretaries of Education.[2]

Chart 5.2. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Annual costs of the goals in programs that support vulnerable groups and research and development. 2011 – 2021 (in 2005 million dollars and in GDP percentage)

[2] We must point out that some countries have included within their national cost studies of the 2021 Educational Goals programs that support students with special educational needs and general scholarship programs base don aid to vulnerable groups programs. Even though said programs may depend completely on the ministries and secretaries of Education, given its scarce significance on the transference associated to programs to fight poverty, and due to comparability reasons, they have been grouped together under institutional spheres of action.

Source: ECLAC based on the national cost studies and preliminary cost studies of ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

Altogether, both lines of actions demand almost 30% of the total additional resources that require the progressive fulfillment of all goals. In absolute terms, in 2021, the year where the most quantity of resources is needed, necessary financing is of a little over 33 thousand million dollars (26.300 million Euros, 0,53% of the regional GDP) although the increase with respect to 2020 is only of 4.200 million dollars. In average, the annual increase of the resources at regional level to progressively reach the goals of both lines of action is somewhat less than 3 thousand million dollars.

Naturally, Brazil and Mexico are the countries with the greatest volume of resources require, due to its average levels of poverty as well as specially die to the volumes of the economies.[3] This way, the volume of additional resources that require the region without counting these countries is reduced in 2021 to 11.300 million dollars, equivalent to 0.32% of the aggregate GDP of the countries (about 9 thousand million Euros). Also, the importance of both programs in the total unit of goals is reduced progressively, similar trend observed in the sub-regional aggregate that excludes additionally the Iberian Peninsula (see chart 5.2).

Cost of the programs that support vulnerable groups In accordance to national and regional estimates already made, the programs that support vulnerable groups concentrate an important amount of resources at the beginning of the commitment to advance towards the goals (21% in 2011), to slightly lose significance

[3] This factor is relevant since the R&D goals are expressed as a percentage of GDP.

IN 2005 MILLION DOLLARS

In million USD

Years GDP percentage

In million USD

GDP percentage

Annual increase as % of GDP

Annual increase as % of GDP

In million USD

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Annual increase as % of GDP

compared to other goals, reaching 18% of the total additional financial resources to reach the 2021 goals (see chart 5.4. at the end of the chapter). For this last year, the amount of resources involves is around 19 thousand million dollars, which would be the equivalent of 0.3% of the regional GDP this year. Naturally, given the levels of poverty of Brazil and Mexico, its population size, as well as the significant presented of afro descendent and indigenous peoples, if excluding the costs of inclusion of vulnerable groups in both countries, the volume of resources necessary for this type of educational support programs decreases considerably, to little over 3 thousand million dollars in 2021 and only to a little over 2 thousand million if we exclude Spain and Portugal (see chart 5.4.)

Chart 5.4. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Resources volume required in different regional aggregates. 2011 - 2021 (in thousand of millions of dollars)

Source: ECLAC based on the national cost studies and preliminary cost studies of ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

Research and development As a region, Latin America would commit to a growth of the macroeconomic priority of research and development of 0.21% of the GDP gradually between 2011 and 2021. This would imply in 2021, the possibility of destining almost 13 thousand million dollars additional to science and technology, totalizing 54.600 million dollars as shown in chart 5.5. (almost 44 thousand million Euros). This would imply a significant increase of resources that necessarily should be accompanies by the formation of greater number of scientist dedicated to pure and plied research, but also greater capacities of retention to the interior of the region of more specialized researchers. In practice, this means devoting greater quantity of resources to salaries and incentives to the scientists to develop programs of investigation and exchange long term. In this sense, the increase in resources necessarily must be accompanies with clear and well structured projects for scientific and technological expansion of each country and the interior of space Ibero-American.

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Otherwise it is possible to have more researchers, nut not expect a lineal relationship between resources and researches and generation of state of the arts knowledge.

Chart 5.5. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Investment in R&D without advancing towards the goal and cost of advancing towards the goal. 2011 – 2021 (in million dollars)

Source: ECLAC based on the national cost studies and preliminary cost studies of ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

2021 Educational Goals Budgetary Financing Scenarios In the context of the project “2021 Education Goals: the education we want for the bicentennial generations”, it is necessary to analyze the ability of the countries to finance said goals with public resources, within a scenario of keeping macroeconomic priority of public spending and the approval and commitment with the increase of the economic effort of each country.

Additionally, in chapter 6 other funding alternatives are discussed that enables to save resources or redirect them, for example, the improvement of educational quality, or to cover the deficit that the countries may incur in with less public resources that can be devoted to the goals. Among these alternatives the contribution of the corporate sector is essential, as well and international cooperation, whether bilateral or multilateral, the contributions of philanthropic foundations, religious groups and non governmental organizations. We would like to mention specially the creation of the Solidarity Fund for Educational Cohesion.

Current scenario: keeping education as a macroeconomic priority of public spending The normal scenario that should be used to compare the ability of the countries to advance towards the fulfillment of the goals is that they maintain a proportion of the

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R&D INCREASE PER PROJECT CURRENT R&D

resources allocated to the education area within the total budget (maintain the fiscal priority of the educational spending) and that this does not diminish with regards to the GDP; or that there is an increase in its participation with respect to the GDP (maintaining or increasing macroeconomic priority=.

Currently, public spending in education, expressed in percentage of the GDP, is varied in the region: from 2.1% to 13.6%. as aggregate average reaches 5.1% of the regional GDP, although as simple average only 4.5% (see Chart 5.6A). In most countries public spending on education is mostly low and less than both averages, which indicates that there could be a great margin for its expansion.

If during the next decade there is relatively stable moderate economic growth (see Chart 5.6.B) and the macroeconomic priority of public spending in education remains (that is to say, maintains inertial behavior with respect to the evolution of the GDP), the resources available at regional level, then, will increase significantly, around 38% in absolute terms.

Nevertheless, said scenario of inertial increase of available resources is insufficient to reach the goals in most countries, since its achievement involves a relatively constant increase in annual costs. This in spite of the fact that several countries would be able to finance the strictly educational goals and even the totality of the goals (including the supporting vulnerable groups and research and development). With all this, in Latin America deficit is of no more than 0.21% of the GDP if only the educational goals, strictly speaking are considered (see Chart 5.3).

Chart 5.6. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Public Spending in Education from 2006 to 2008 and annual growth projection between 2011 to 2021. (in GDP percentage)

A. Public Spending in Education 2006 - 2008

B. Projected GDP Growth

Source: ECLAC based on official numbers and of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

Naturally, the deficit level is greater if consider the total set of goals (almost 30 thousand million dollars in 2021, about 0.5% regional GDP). However, it is necessary to take into consideration that the comparison has not taken into account the resources currently used in support programs for vulnerable groups, and therefore the projection of available resources do not include them, which may overestimate the deficit of resources.

Therefore, it is necessary greater mobilization of resources, budget and extra-budget. To achieve the goals of the 2021 Educational Goals project.

Minimum educational commitment: 0.1% increase of the educational budget from the GDP annual from 2012 The economic effort required to achieve the goals would be made from financing plans elaborated in 2011, and that take the concrete form of systematic increase of the educational budget in 0,1% of the GDP from 2012 up to a maximum budgetary of 6.5% of the GDP. For those countries that cannot reach this limit, the proposal would mean that in a 9 year period the educational budget would need to increase 0.9% of the GDP. This common goal does not pretend to ignore the possibility that some countries, which public spending in education as percentage of the GDP is relatively low, may expand at greater rhythms.

This budgetary effort pretends also that in the next 10 years the gap of each country experience at least moderate growth. Evidently, if the budgetary effort is made, the achievement of the educational goal (excluding the financial support of vulnerable groups and R&D) will be possible in most countries with only national public resources available.

With said effort, would only maintain permanent deficit of resources some countries. The rest of the countries would have some deficit only initially or would have enough resources to invest in quality education, and eventually, to support those that cannot afford with their own resources the totality of the goals, by means of diverse modalities of cooperation (as discussed in chapter 6).

With said budgetary effort, at regional level the deficit would be relatively insignificant, and for the complete period would only amount to a little over 12 thousand million dollars (9.6 million Euros during 10 years period). Naturally, the deficit decreases significantly if exclude Brazil and Mexico, not reaching 6 thousand million dollars for the whole period (4.7 million Euros). In the mayoralty of the countries deficits occur, specially at the beginning of the implementation period of the 2021 Educational Goals. This can be addressed easily as long as the budgetary plans and partial goals plans take into consideration in what years will there be more availability of those public resources, time that mayor advances can be programmed towards said goals. Annual costs of the different programs can be seen in chart 5.4

Chart 5.3. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Annual deficit of resources keeping the macroeconomic priority of public spending in education. 2011 - 2021. (in 2005 million dollars and GDP percentage)

Source: ECLAC, based of national cost studies and preliminary cost study by ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

* Excluding Brazil and Mexico ** Excluding Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Portugal. This sub-regional aggregate does not differ with the

respect to the prior one in the absolute deficit levels, due to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula will have enough resources to reach the goals within this scenario.

*** Comparisons include the additional costs of the support for vulnerable groups programs and expansion of R&D programs.

In including the goals of support of vulnerable groups and increase in research and development, the deficit would be quite high (25 thousand million dollars in the whole period), as seen in Chart 5.5. if the totality of the goals is included, including the support of vulnerable groups by means of money transfers and increase of investment en R&D, a

In million USD

Years GDP percentage

In million USD

GDP percentage

In million USD

GDP percentage

Deficit of resources in strictly educational programs with respect to constant educational budgets

Deficit of resources in all programs with respect to constant educational budgets***

significant number of countries would be in deficit situation if only they make the budgetary effort addressed in the specific goal 24 of the project “2021 Educational Goals”.

For this reason, it is necessary to reflect on the sources of financing sources extra-budgetary, even considering that the transfer to vulnerable groups and the investment in R&D are usually on the head of programs of fight of poverty current in the region and of the research and science programs, which budgetary administration is usually outside the educational sector.

Chart 5.4. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Annual Costs of different components valued of the project. “2021 Educational Goals”. 2011 - 2021 (in 2005 million dollars and 2005 million Euros)

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* Exchange rate Euro to Dollars in 2005 equivalent to 0,8041(series RF World Bank) ** Excluding Brazil and Mexico ***Excluding Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Portugal.

Chart 5.4 (continuation) Iberoamerica (21 countries) Annual Costs of different components valued of the project. “2021 Educational Goals”. 2011 - 2021 (in 2005 million dollars and 2005 million Euros)

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* Exchange rate Euro to Dollars in 2005 equivalent to 0,8041(RF series World Bank) ** Excluding Brazil and Mexico ***Excluding Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Portugal.

Chart 5.5. Iberoamerica (21 countries) Annual deficit of resources increasing the macroeconomic priority of public spending in education. 2011 - 2021. (in 2005 million dollars, in 2005 million Euros and GDP percentage)

Source: ECLAC, based of national cost studies and preliminary cost study by ECLAC and OIS (ECLAC/OIS, 2010)

* Excluding Brazil and Mexico

In million USD

Years GDP percentage

In million USD

GDP percentage

In million USD

GDP percentage

Deficit of resources in strictly educational programs with respect to increasing educational budgets*** Years

Aggregate total in 2005 million dollars

Aggregate total in 2005 million Euros

** Excluding Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Portugal. This sub-regional aggregate does not differ with the respect to the prior one in the absolute deficit levels, due to the fact that the Iberian Peninsula would have enough resources to reach the goals in this scenario.

*** Comparisons include the additional costs of the support for vulnerable groups programs and expansion of R&D programs

Chapter 6 Additional Financing Sources to achieve the commitment: 2021 Educational Goals.

The need to obtain new resources for the ministries and institutions responsible for the achievement of the 2021 Goals, especially so that the ministries of Education may close the existing financial breach and overcome it through the integration of new actors and mechanisms that channel resources and responsibilities towards education.

The notion of additional or complementary financing sources is constituted in reference to the need of covering the deficit in resources that the main source, public budget, cannot cover as per the projections made. Although the State has the mission of protecting the right to education as an achievement and challenge of modernity, this does not mean that education is its exclusive responsibility. The way that the government obtains public resources and reassigns them based on, sometimes opposing interests, of the different social sectors, it is a first front. More efficiency and efficacy in raising funds and distribution is an important factor to increase public resources.

One of the advantages of diversifying financing sources is that it can achieve greater flexibility in spending so as to invest more in the priorities set forth by the governments to advance towards its own objectives. The extra budget and in budget resources defined for specific programs, allows to finance initiatives that directly, for example, aim at improving continuity in the educational systems, especially in the most vulnerable and less income sectors, and at improving the administration of the educational system so that current expenses have greater impact on equity, quality and efficiency of said system (ECLAC/UNESCO, 2005).

Internal Financing Sources – Extra budget National Public Resources Efficiency and efficacy in the administration of public funding The efficiency and efficacy of the expenses have been an important objective for a long time within the public sector. A systematization of these experiences, that contemplate current educational scenarios, may result attractive as means of releasing resources placing them where the region has educational challenges. The array of options to improve the allocation and use of the resources is broad and the identification of those more relevant and pertinent ones require an effort from different educational levels in each country. As a result, good practices in this area can disseminate within the national and regional context, through different technical cooperation mechanisms.

Sectoral reallocation and tax policy The distribution of the resources within its own educational budget is an item that cannot be discarded as an alternative for freeing resources from one area whereas it can be sub-used and redirected towards the place that needs it the most, taking as a premise for these reallocations, the dynamics of the pedagogic situation and the socio-demographic situation that undergoes each country. Given the fact that tax burden is comparatively low in many countries in Latin America compared to those with more development (ECLAC/SEGIB, 2006), there is a margin in the tax systems to obtain additional resources, or to establish new tax balance that allows it to generate exemptions for the educational sector, compensating it with higher taxes in other areas that can assume the cost. To explore these areas that may implement the tax changes it is pertinent to make the first difference between instruments to obtain resources, translating them into the public sector and those that stimulate direct flux of private resources towards education.

National private resources Corporate social responsibility The public-private alliance implies the boosting and coordination of corporate social responsibility that is, at this moment, one of the main strategies in the field of cooperation that are being developed successfully several international agencies. Also the OIS is making progress in this direction, which has presupposed the incorporation of several companies, foundations and institutions to the shared efforts of achieving the 2021 Educational Goals. These alliances are, without doubt, one of the main contributions for the constitution of the Solidarity Fund for Educational Cohesion that will be discussed later on.

Contributions of the families and other private contributions The families play an important role in the broader context of social responsibility. They constitute the basic pillar within the educational community and exercise a pedagogic function in the homes of the students. Many times the parents do not have the time or the specific skills necessary to have active participation in the educational process of their children (ECLALC/UNESCO, 2005). If the parents cannot visualize the positive effects that education has in the family`s welfare – for example its importance for the future of the student, or for its access to cultural goods, or even in the form of monetary returns – they would not dedicate time or resources that, due to a matter of cost of opportunity, would be destined to cover other activities and expenses. There exist, also, a broad range of private organizations that act with public objectives, such as foundations or non profit organizations, non governmental organizations, independent training academic centers, church and religious congregations, parents

associations and guilds or union organizations, which role may be associated to the administration of educational centers and also management of resources from the public or private sector.

External sources to finance education External Public debt and education Among possible sources of external financing the possibility of converting part of the service of the public debt into investment in education, by means of different financial mechanisms. The need to develop mechanisms that allows it to progress towards this type of exchange is based, mainly, on the growing external debt of the countries developing has become an obstacle to increase investment in education, obstacle to fulfill the Objectives of the Millennium Development in this regard. In Latin America, the most indebted region, this issue is specially relevant, because of the burden is so great that in some countries the service of the debts is greater that the expenses made on education or health, and in some cases, both combined (Filums y Serrani, 2009).

Financial and technical international cooperation Bilateralism and multilateralism Members states of OCDE constitute the main source of bilateral cooperation for education in the whole world and its Development Assistance Committee (DAC) maintains current information of the contributions of the member countries and of the multilateral assistance provided by the European communities. International aid is a vital component of the pact in favor of education. Latin America receives a relatively small portion of the total official development aid (ODA) due to the fact that the region is considered to be moderately developed in light of the fact that the majority of its countries are considered middle income countries (MIC), diagnosis that does not take into account the great heterogeneity of same. In 2008 the relative participation of Latin America in the total world ODA was 4.3%, the lowest percentage since the beginning of this decade. This drop cannot be compensated neither by the effort of Spain that in 2008 increased its aid to the region to up to 1.3 million dollars (a 25% increase compared to 2007) and passed to share, with the USA, the regional leadership in terms of donors. Like in other years, the greater proportion of regional ODAs is concentrated in Central America and Andean countries. We must clarify that along with this decrease in official aid for the development of Latin America, some countries of the region such as Brazil and Mexico have begun to donate themselves. In 2006 and 2007, the total annual aid for education in Latin American and the Caribbean increased is average to 813 million dollars, while in 1999 and 200 the annual average was 605million, in 1999 and 12000, the aid for education represented 7% of the total flow of help to the region while in 2006-2007 this percentage increased, and represented 9% (UNESCO, 2010).

South - South Cooperation South - South Cooperation has registered a renewed boom in the last decade: it has diversified in instruments and participants, it has become a reference to consider in international forums on development cooperation and has begun to articulate a debate agenda of its own, very much centered in how to reach more and better south - south cooperation. Latin America has developed a leading role on the subject, fostering the debate, participating actively in main international cooperation forums and contributing with new initiatives such as the Horizontal South –South Cooperation, in is bilateral and regional versions, and the Triangular Cooperation, where middle income countries have a crucial role in contributing its human resources, its experiences in “case studies”, appropriate technology and in kind resources. The driving force of the South - South Cooperation in Latin America has coincided with the progressive displacement of the region as receptor of world official development aid (SEGIB, 2009).

Shared Action Programs Within the framework of the project 2021 Educational Goals, a series of programs called Shared Action Programs, are included directed to facilitating the achievement of the main goals, and that is discussed in detail in the next chapter. A central element for the achievement of theses programs is the technical cooperation that may be offered by national and international organizations,. Therein, se intent supports the effort that Latin American countries are making with the solidarity of different actors. Their common tasks are the following:

- Prepare diagnostics of the situation of the countries on the issues mentioned in the programs

- Make recommendations in terms of actions and guide on reforms - Collaborate with the ministers and secretary of education in formulation,

managing and evaluating educational policies and programs - Develop programs specific in certain regions and localities. - Support the elaboration of research and publication of the subjects considered. - Foster the organization of national and international meetings to share and

exchange educational experiences. - Cerate a contest to rewards innovative and successful projects in these areas. - Sponsor the creation and strengthening of educational networks specialized in

each subject. - Strengthen advisory committees of experts of OIS and mange international

awareness campaigns on the different subjects, among others.

Solidarity Fund for Education Cohesion

There is also the need for the countries to sense the collective will to support one another and to receive necessary cooperation to achieve the goals. Thus, the same proposal 2021 Educational Goals: the education we want for the bicentennial generations has included

the initiate to create a Solidarity Fund for Educational Cohesion (in 2011, with an action plant to 20219 that complete the efforts of the countries in the achievement of the goals. Said fund would tally/manage the contributions of the countries or donor institutions channel to certain countries, and t some goals established, and would constitute a negotiation forum with the beneficiary countries to agree the shared effort. As mentioned in the general Goal 10, the economic resources for the cooperation should contribute 20% to 40% of the economic effort made by the countries and regions with greater educational lag to fulfill the objectives. Richer countries within the region, international institutions, cooperation agencies, companies, foundations and economic and social sectors committed to the project, would contribute the resources necessary to cover these objectives in accordance to their criteria and priorities and within a framework of coordination of the contributions provided.

Chapter 7 Shared Action Programmes

The road to achieving the project “2021 Educational Goals: the education we want for the bicentennial generations” requires developing a set of programs that facilitates it; this will be possible only with the sustained effort of each country and the support of one another.

The ten programs that will be mentioned are the basic guidelines of OIS cooperation program focused on achieving the 2021 Educational Goals, which intentions and strategies, greatly, coincide with most of the objectives of the different international organizations that are present in our region.

It is necessary then that the countries committed to achieving the 2021 Educational goals perceive the support of the other countries and feel that they are part of an fieldious Ibero-American educational project.

Program Supporting Educational Institutions Governance, Procurement of the Educational Agreements and to the Development of Comprehensive Social and Educational Programs.

Objectives - Advise the ministers of Education on their own educational reform policies. - Offer guidance on the most adequate process so as to implement them. - Formulate a proposal that facilitates/encourages participation of new social actors

in the educational experience. - Contribute to the achievement of political and social agreements that mobilize

society around educational goals. - Foster intersectoral programs and comprehensive policies that systematically

address change and improvement of education.

Lines of Action - Set up concrete initiatives with different universities and ministries of Education

to encourage/facilitate the participation of university students in education improvement programs.

- Design with the ministries of Education of the interested countries and with other public organizations comprehensive and intersectoral projects or strengthen existing ones.

- Encourage/facilitate the exchange of experiences to improve public governance from the reports prepared by the Institute for Monitoring and Evaluation the Goals.

- Develop a specialized training program on public policy and on supervision of education within the framework of OIS` Center of Higher University Studies (CHUS).

Programme for education for diversity students and groups with greater risk of exclusion.

Objectives - Encourage/facilitate learning of students through cultural and linguistic contents

catered to indigenous peoples and afro descendents. - Improve access and permanence of girls in schools and guarantee their

educational rights. - Improve education of groups with special education needs resulting from any kind

of disability. - Encourage/facilitate educational integration of immigrant students in their

destination countries and look out for the adequate educational development of children and young persons whose parents have emigrated.

- Contribute to the improvement of life and make visible cultural manifestations of afro descendents and indigenous people.

- Improve access of indigenous people and afro decedents to the educational system, from early childhood to vocational training of a higher technical level and university.

Lines of Action - Create a network of inclusive schools where there is a meeting point and

reflection where channels of communication, coordination and collaboration among the different members of the Ibero-American educational community (professionals, families, educators, students, etc.)

- Develop specialized training on educational inclusion within the within the framework of OIS` Center of Higher University Studies ( (CHUS)) so as to train professionals that will work in the field of education and that do not have the competencies and the strategies necessary to be able to respond to diversity within the student body.

- Train administrators` and educator´s teams in the creation and use of intercultural bilingual materials that tend to the needs of the students belonging to ethnic groups and afro descendents.

- Collaborate in the training of afro descendents public servants and social leaders. - Develop educational project that pay special attention to afro descendent women

and those belong to indigenous peoples, since they are the most discriminated groups.

- Detect, evaluate and visualize the progress and achievements attained by the Ibero-American educational community to facilitate the inclusion of students with

special education needs and exchange experiences and good practices among countries.

- Elaborate a system of indicators to monitor, evaluate and analyze inclusive education in Latin-America.

Early childhood comprehensive care Programme

Objectives - Bring awareness to society on the rights of children and contribute to the

eradication of child labor. - Guarantee civil registration of all children. - Support the development of comprehensive social and educational policies for

early childhood care in Latin-America. - Collaborate with the ministers of Education and with the ministers responsible for

children care to improve the protection of the rights of this age group and the offer of child education.

- Attain adequate education and qualification of persons that are in charge of children in initial development ages.

- Provide infrastructure and resources necessary as basic initial condition to guarantee adequate care and quality education during the first years of a child´s development.

Lines of Action - Prepare and publicize a biannual Ibero-American report on the situation of early

childhood in the region. - Elaborate a comprehensive system of indicators to monitor, evaluate and analyze

the situation of early childhood in Latin-America. - Support initiatives to ensure that all children are included in the civil registration

of each country. - Develop programs and strategies of action directed to children from ethnic

minorities, afro descendents and indigenous population, guaranteeing egalitarian access to quality initial education and fostering equality of opportunities from the earliest stages of life.

- Develop programs of child education where the arts and games have a principal function as means of fostering/encouraging creativity, cultural identity and search for the attainment of capacities, competencies and skills in early ages of development.

- Design a regional training course for persons that will be caring for early age children and are not properly qualified for the purpose.

- Develop a network of responsible caregivers in early childhood that allows articulation of initiatives, strategies and actions, as well as to establish channels of communication among countries of the region.

Quality of Education Improvement Programme

ICT Incorporation in Education Program Objectives

- Foster equality of opportunities and compensate social inequalities, increasing the number of personal computers in schools and technological education of the student body.

- Facilitate learning of students through the incorporation of ICT in the process of teaching and learning.

- Attain that educators incorporate their own technological appropriation to the teaching and learning process, which enables a pedagogic use of ICTs

- Guarantee the existence of adapted quality digital resources and contents necessary for the integration and use of technology in the education sector.

Lines of Action

- Develop a training course specialized on ICTs that enables the teaching staff to acquire competencies and strategies necessary for the incorporation of new technologies to the teaching and learning process.

- Support and foster innovative initiatives that incorporate ICTs in the teaching and learning process of the different school subjects, through calls for tender of experiences and best practices.

- Elaborate a regional qualitative indicators system on the use of information technology in education.

- Strengthen, support and establish coordination strategies guidelines with the Red Latinoamericana de Portales Educativos (RELPE).

- Manage and collaborate in the acquisition and distribution of equipment and technological resources in the educational environment.

- Strengthen OIS` Institute for Education Development and Innovation (Instituto para el Desarrollo y la Innovación Educativa - IDIE) specialized in ICTs, with seat in Sao Paulo as an instrument for the support, formulation and evaluation of educational policies of the region.

Reading and Libraries Programme Objectives

- Collaborate in the creation of school library networks, in cooperation with public reading networks.

- Encourage reading in schools where the families, students and teachers participate.

- Promote actions that encourage reading and writing in formal and non formal educational environment.

- Incorporate reading of texts and narrations as strategy for the benefit of students’ learning.

- Know the situation of the school libraries in the different countries of the region. - Collaborate with the Centro Regional para el Fomento del Libro en America Latina

y el Caribe (CERLALC) for the promotion of reading and management of school libraries.

Lines of Action

- Create a specialization distance learning course on written culture, school libraries and network societies, within the framework of the training offer of OIS` Center of Higher University Studies and prompted in collaboration with some of the more representative universities on the subject.

- Conduct research on the situation of school libraries. Share the models and experiences implemented in different countries. Enrich these evaluations with qualitative models.

- Foster the creation of networks of innovative experiences (example, practices, models, etc.) in special interest issues for the education of readers, particularly in subjects such as integration of reading and writing in learning of all subjects, literacy in information, digital reading and writing and social promotion of reading.

Education Evaluation/Monitoring Program Objectives

- Achieve an integrated system with social and educational indicators for the region, in collaboration with organizations also committed with this objective.

- Create a monitoring culture that contributes to the attainment of the objectives of the educational system and of the schools.

- Contribute to the development of evaluation/monitoring models of the educational systems, of the schools and of the academic performance of the students.

- Foster comprehensive evaluation of the schools. - Strengthen evaluation institutions of the countries. - Create the Institute of Monitoring and Evaluation of the Educational Goals (ISEME)

Lines of action

- Offer advise to the countries to strengthen their evaluation institutes and their statistical units with the purpose of improving the development of the evaluation programs.

- Offer a course specialized in educational indicators, and another on educational evaluation, within the framework of the OIS` Center of Higher University Studies.

- Elaborate and divulge evaluation and monitoring models of schools and teachers. - Contribute to the diffusion, analysis and interpretation of international

evaluations.

- Publish books and documents that support knowledge of the impact of the evaluation in education.

- Elaborate reports where quantitative and qualitative methodologies for monitoring and evaluating the 2021 Educational Goals are combined.

Technical Professional Education Program (TPEP) Objectives

- Promote in all member states of OIS the institutional development of reform and modernization policies of technical professional training.

- Define and propose models of the system of qualifications and professional training, build from common objectives on the diversity of each country.

- Promote the necessary preparation of administrators and directors of the TPEP system for the implementation of the opportune reforms in the referred systems

- Promote labor insertion of persons with greater difficulties in social insertion, specially those that pursue literacy programs and basic education of young persons and adults.

- Foster the development of entrepreneurial skills of the students, specially of those that are in social disadvantage, to encourage their personal autonomy and their labor insertion.

Lines of action

- Elaborate and make public documents regarding the qualifications system and about technical education and professional training.

- Offer a course specialized in training within the framework of OIS` Center of Higher University Studies, for the qualification of teams in charge of the reform policies of the TPEP.

- Offer to the countries the performance of audits of the qualification systems and professional training.

- Elaborate and implement improvement plans of the quality of the systems of TPEP in countries that require it.

- Formulate and develop an Ibero-American Program for young entrepreneurs.

Education in values Program and for the citizens Objectives

- Collaborate with the ministries of Education in fostering the education in values and responsible citizenships.

- Strengthen training in values and citizenship of the teachers. - Situate the culture of peace, respect for the environment, equality of gender,

sports, arts and health among the preferential issues of the education in values. - Pay special attention to attaining gender equality in schools and in overcoming

the stereotypes linked with gender that students have.

Lines of action

- Develop a course specialized in education in values in the framework of OIS` Center of Higher University Studies.

- Conduct research on training on values of the teachers in the study plans of teaching as a career.

- Elaborate a report on the situation of equality of opportunities and of the rights of girls in Ibero-American education systems.

- Collaborate in the creation and operation of network of educational institutions which main objective is the development of policies for gender equality.

- Development of programs that foster sports as means of development of values. - Support the creation of an Ibero-American award for education in human rights.

Literacy and lifelong education Program Objectives

- Mainstream literacy in Latin America and offer young and adult population the possibility of concluding basic education and continue with their education throughout their lives.

- Build in the region a renewed and expanded vision, concept and development of literacy and lifelong education.

- Contribute to the achievement of political and social agreements to make possible the fulfillment of the objectives of this program.

- Promote and, if needed, implement programs and projects specific for reinforcement of national policies and pay intensive attention to special needs and disadvantaged groups.

- Support a plan for the prevention of illiteracy through the reduction of failure and school drop put rates.

Lines of action

- Elaborate methodologies and instruments to monitor and evaluate the fulfillment of the national and regional objectives on the subject of literacy and lifelong education.

- Conduct intensive literacy and permanent education projects in different countries, as well as specific actions for vulnerable or traditionally disadvantaged groups.

- Offer and maintain a course specialized, within the framework of OIS` Center of Higher University Studies, for the training and specialization of policies and of literacy and lifelong education programs makers.

- Call an Ibero American awards to recognize successful experiences, research and studies related to literacy and lifelong education.

- Encourage and support the design, development and generalized implementation of innovative teaching/learning methodologies and resources with high capacity for diffusion.

Professional Development of Teachers Program Objectives

- Collaborate with countries and quality of teaching certification agencies so that all teachers training are certified as such.

- Contribute to the improvement of the access systems to the teaching profession and provide support to novice teachers.

- Collaborate in the design of models for the training in exercise of the teachers and for their professional development.

Lines of action

- Prompt the work of the advise commission of experts of the OIS in professional development of teachers to achieve the objectives proposed.

- Develop programs in different countries to support novice teachers. - Summon an annual meeting to share initiatives of the countries on training and

professional development of teachers. - Prompt distance post graduate courses with semi-attendance through CHUS. - Collaborate with IRACES network for the certification of initial training of teachers.

Art, Culture and Citizenship Education Program Objectives

- Facilitate access of students to quality art education. - Reinforce the relationship that exists among art, culture and education to allow

knowledge and value of cultural diversity in Latin America. - Foster incorporation of culture in each country and the of the whole Latin America

in education projects of schools. - Foster the development of citizenship competencies through art education. - Foster research and circulation of knowledge in art education. - Renew and create new specific pedagogic models for the art education field. - Implement recommendations made regarding education and culture as per the

Ibero-American Cultural Letter. Lines of action

- Create a bank of good practices in art, culture and citizenship education. - Elaborate a collection of audiovisual experiences, as well as materials and specific

resources that may support initial and permanent training. - Identify, strengthen and make visible the most relevant projects of art education

in the region. - Offer specialization courses in art education within the framework of OIS` Center

of Higher University Studies. - Foster school networks where music and art education are instrumental for social

and cultural integration.

- Publish art education reference books and documents in the region. - Promote mobility, postgraduate education and generation of information systems

and networks among Ibero-American researchers. - Incorporate in cultural observatories the relation among art, education and

culture.

Stimulating the Ibero-American Space of Knowledge Program Objectives

- Promote cooperation for the continual improvement of the quality of higher education.

- Foster the efforts that have been made for the conformation of academic and research cooperation and exchange networks, as effective means of building the Ibero-American Knowledge Space.

- Support science and technology national organizations in the elaboration of national policies on science, technology and innovation.

- Promote scientific literacy and stimulate in the young the vocation for the study of sciences and technology, with independence of judgment and sense of critical responsibility.

- Develop and reinforce the scientific and technological capacities of the Ibero-American countries and human resources of high qualifications.

- Promote an agenda of science and technology Ibero-American that answers social demands of knowledge and encourages equity and social cohesion.

Lines of action - Foster the Pablo Neruda Scholarship Program as an Ibero-American system for the

mobility of teachers and university students. - Establish mechanisms of coordination stable between organizations and

institutions that collaborate in the development of the university mobility. - Foster the constitution and development of inter university networks of

excellence that offer joint semi-attendance post graduate courses and develop cooperation projects of research, development and innovation.

- Reinforce the operation of the RIACES certification network and its collaboration with the national certification and evaluation of quality of higher education organizations.

- Conduct studies on the social perception of science and the capacities of Ibero-American countries in basic science fields, in emerging disciplines and in areas of high impact.

Design and implement institutional strengthening programs for public servants of the educational, science and culture administrations, through schools specialized within the framework of CHUS of the OIS, emphasizing in teacher training programs

Chapter 8 Evaluation and Monitoring of 2021 Educational Goals: Sustaining the Effort

It seems reasonable that the proposal of common educational goals for ibero-American countries include an evaluation and monitoring system of the progress and attainment. The ministers of Education understood it so during the meeting held at El Salvador when during the final declaration of the Conference, where it was agreed to promote the project 2021 Educational Goals, they also included the commitment to move forward in the elaboration of regional monitoring mechanisms.

The importance given to the evaluation and monitoring of the 2021 Educational Goals project during this last decade, has led to the proposal of the creation of the Institute for the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Goals, whereas the organizations in charge of the educational evaluation of the different countries would be part of. The proper operation of this Institute will depend on its capacity to incorporate in its duties national institutions of evaluation. Strengthening of the later will be one of its objectives. In this manner, also, it will ensure the compliance of their functions.

The monitoring and evaluation system is not an end in itself, but, rather should be understood as a fundamental instrument to attain the agreed goals. The main objective of said systems consists of obtaining, processing and providing rigorous information that is true and relevant to discern the degree of progress.

Main products foreseen of the evaluation and monitoring system Among the products expected to be obtained by the evaluation and monitoring system are:

- Biennial progress reports. They will include the level of achievement of the diverse general and specific goals and in each one of the proposed indicators, as well as the situation of the countries with regards to each one of them and the assessment of the progress in diverse areas. These reports will be the main product of the process of monitoring and for its drafting the work developed by ECLAC, OREALC/UNESCO and SITEAL will be taken into account, as well as the participation of the evaluation institutes of the countries. Each report will be consulted with the representatives of the participating countries prior to its publication, with the purpose of ensuring accuracy and introducing explanatory notes whenever necessary. It is proposed that in 2011 a first document on the

current situation of each country regarding the different approved goals be prepared.

- Specific reports. Subject matter in nature, sub regional, sectoral or of any kind that offers special interest for Iberoamerica countries. Also, will have special relevance those related to the diverse programs that were approved within the ibero American summits, or with the subjects that have been the object of discussion in Iberoamerica conferences of Education. The proposal and the agreement of said report will be made by the coordinating body of the evaluation and monitoring system.

- Joint reports. They will report on the progress regarding the 2021 Educational Goals with other international projects (UNESCO, OECD, OIS, ECLAC, UNICEF, IADB, World Bank, among others), with the purpose of reinforcing the knowledge regarding the educational situation of the region and the reaping of the benefits of the efforts made to make progress. This type of reports as well as the ones previously mentioned does not an envisaged periodicity foreseen.

- Intended recipients. The main intended recipient of the reports that are elaborated as consequence of this process will be the Iberoamerica Education Conference. Prior to its publication they will be sent to the Advisory Board of the 2021 Educational Goals for its analysis and discussion.

Organization and coordination mechanisms Deploying the monitoring and evaluation system requires the design of a series of coordination mechanisms that ensures the compliance of the criteria indicated previously and, at the same time, that enables it to execute the job efficiently. Said mechanisms must be adapted to the objectives that are intended to be attained with this project and the Ibero-American character of the initiative. To develop the work of monitoring and evaluation of the 2021 Educational Goals the 2021 Educational Goals Evaluation and Monitoring Institute will be created with the following structure:

- Governing Council: it will be composed of the managers of the evaluation institutions of each one of the countries or by those persons that perform these tasks in the ministries of Education. In its midst, the necessary decisions will be adopted for the proper development of the project, and more specifically, the ones related to the reports that should be produced or made public.

- Advisory Council: it will be composed of the representatives of the international organizations with experience in the field of evaluation – OREALC/UNESCO/ECLAC/SITEAL and UNICEF -, as well as specialist of renown in the evaluation area.

- Executive Committee: Ensure the monitoring and evaluation conduction and the proper functioning of the Governing Council and Advisory Council. It will work within the General Secretariat of the OIS that will ensure its efficient operation. For the development of the of its job it will be able to form working groups (stable and

with specific objectives) that may be considered necessary, with the involvement of other organizations, institutes or national or international associations. Its fundamental function will be to obtain the necessary information for the preparation of the monitoring reports of the 2021 Educational Goals, as well as those of the Iberoamerica Conference of Education or the Governing Council establish.

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